State, local leaders talk rebuilding on Pinellas beaches after hurricanes

State and local officials provided an update on beach renourishment efforts Friday at a news conference in Indian Rocks Beach.

The battered shoreline behind them stood as a reminder of the devastation wrought by hurricanes Helene and Milton.

Pinellas Public Works Director Kelli Hammer Levy said about 1 million cubic yards of sand was washed away by this season's storms. The county is working on its own proposal to replenish shorelines, free from projects normally overseen by the Army Corps of Engineers, after talks with the federal agency stalled in recent years.

In 2022, the Army Corps reversed course on beach renourishment practices, announcing it would require permanent easement agreements .

The decision requires full participation from landowners and has divided residents across coastal Pinellas , some of whom are wary of signing over property rights.

Without 100% participation among beachfront property owners to grant permanent public access to land they own within the project area, the Corps has refused to begin the project. For decades, the agency's policy had only required temporary access while nourishment work was ongoing.

In the meantime, the county has spent millions to pay for renourishment on its own.

Pinellas County Commission chair Kathleen Peters said she spoke with President Joe Biden and asked him to approve an emergency "workaround" that would allow renourishment to begin without waiting on approval from the Army Corps. She expects to receive an answer from his chief of staff Friday afternoon.

Peters said beaches had receded six feet across some stretches of the shoreline after Hurricane Idalia last year, which contributed greatly to the devastation to property this season.

"That six feet of sand would have been farther out and higher here, and would have been able to absorb the energy that was coming in," she said. "The damage that we sustained on the interior part of the islands and the rest of Pinellas County would have been significantly less."

Wes Brooks, the state's chief resiliency officer, blamed "the bureaucrats in D.C." for standing in the way of renourishment.

"As a result of them not finding a way to spend that $60 million to repair these beaches, billions of dollars of additional damages occurred in this community. Billions of dollars of additional costs to FEMA ... and countless lives upended as a result, too," he said. "Somebody needs to be held accountable at the Army Corps for that very bad benefit and cost analysis."

Brooks also praised Gov. Ron DeSantis' "relentless drive and vision" to help the state recover from an active and destructive hurricane season.

"The governor has made it very clear that we are not leaving these communities behind," he said. "We are going to continue to push for resilient recoveries to make sure the inevitable next storm is less damaging and less impactful than the last."

When a Tampa Bay Times reporter asked Brooks how the state is planning for more intense hurricanes and rising seas caused by climate change , he pivoted to DeSantis' record on Everglades restoration and water quality.

When asked again about addressing the impacts of climate change in the state, Brooks said, "I'll let the governor's words speak for themselves."

On the presidential campaign trail, DeSantis called climate change "politicization of the weather" and signed a bill earlier this year that scrubbed most mentions of climate change from state law .

State Sen. Nick DiCeglie, R-St. Petersburg, said he is hopeful that the new federal administration under President-Elect Donald Trump will help move local projects like Pinellas' along smoothly.

Florida Rep. Linda Chaney, R-St. Pete Beach, addressed the urgency of restoring Pinellas beaches. The county's beaches are critical infrastructure that protects the county's "people, property and economy," she said.

"Beaches are what people come to Florida for," Chaney said.