WILBUR-BY-THE-SEA, Fla. – If you take a walk down the beach in Volusia County, chances are you will still spot a construction crane or two with crews working to rebuild the coast. This week marks one year since Hurricane Nicole wreaked havoc on Volusia’s coast.
The storm caused homes to cave in, condos to be evacuated, and today, many properties are still being cleaned up.
“It looks like some places have made some recovery but for the most part, a lot of them look worse than they used to. They continue to fall down,” said Wilbur-by-the-Sea resident Doris Charewicz.
On your beach walk, you’ll also likely see homes that have barely been touched since the storm ravaged through and temporary barriers put up to try and preserve what’s left.
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“Tourism has been deeply impacted by this because people aren’t booking hotels or condos where you don’t have a pool for your kids to play in or you don’t have a way to walk onto the beach,” said property manager Krista Goodrich.
Goodrich manages dozens of homes and condos in Volusia and Flagler counties.
News 6 was with Goodrich and the homeowners of many Wilbur-by-the-Sea houses on Nov. 9 last year as they watched houses teeter on the cliff Hurricane Ian’s storm surge left behind just weeks prior to Nicole making landfall. The next morning, Nov. 10, the houses started collapsing onto the beach.
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“We have right now probably just under 30 condo units that still don’t have beach access, still don’t have pools rebuilt and that’s just the ones that we manage,” said Goodrich.
Over two dozen condo buildings in Volusia were emergency evacuated for fear of collapse after their seawalls gave out.
Now, many of these properties have just received or are still waiting for promised government funding and permits from the state to rebuild.
“I worry that you’re going to start seeing a lot of these investment locations, specifically condos, that will be going into foreclosure because if you can’t use it, you can’t rent it, you can’t sell it, what do you do,” said Goodrich.
Volusia County Emergency Management said their team is currently working with 62 property owners affected by last year’s hurricanes to help them get the permit process started — or look at other options.
“Do we need to elevate a structure somehow or is the structure so damaged and stuff that we just need to demolish the debris and not rebuild on that site,” said emergency management director Clint Mecham.
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