By Lee Melsek
In the aftermath of Milton’s rampage across Fort Myers Beach, the press has missed an important piece of the story.
Huge amounts of costly new sand were laying across Estero Boulevard, sand from the recent start of the latest taxpayer-funded beach renourishment project.
It’s the expensive ritual of putting back the sand the storms wash out. The ritual is mandated by the political argument that beach resorts must keep the shoreline wide and bleached to keep the crowds coming, supporting the resorts, bars, restaurants, hotels and condos and single-family home sales.
Cleanup and camaraderie are constant discussions after these storms. What isn’t being discussed, at Fort Myers Beach or at state and county government, are any plans to meet global warming’s increasing numbers of monster storms and what surely will become the soaring public costs of that reality.
Instead, denial seems to prevail.
At our state government, Gov. Ron DeSantis has removed most mentions of climate change from state law.
Science has told us denial is absurd; rapid intensification of storms is reality.
More storms are surely coming to Fort Myers Beach in the years ahead as the Gulf’s already record temperatures increase, feeding the whirling destroyers of the island’s idyllic reputation.
As the number of storms increase, as they have been doing lately, taxpayers will be asked to spend greater and greater amounts fighting the much more frequent onslaughts.
The question at global warming’s ground zeros like Fort Myers Beach is when will this increasing destruction and cost end? How will it end?
Lee Melsek of High Springs, Florida, is a former longtime resident of Fort Myers Beach and investigative reporter for the Fort Myers News-Press. This opinion piece was originally published by the News-Press, which is a media partner of The Invading Sea. Banner photo: Crews clean up sand in Fort Myers Beach after Hurricane Ian and build back the beach. (Jocelyn Augustino/FEMA via Defense Visual Information Distribution Service).
If you are interested in submitting an opinion piece to The Invading Sea, email Editor Nathan Crabbe at ncrabbe@fau.edu. Sign up for The Invading Sea newsletter by visiting here. To learn more about beach renourishment, watch the video below.
