ST JOHNS, Fla. — Beach access in Crescent Beach is an obstacle course littered with debris. Pieces of lumber and clearly identifiable pieces of staircases were all pushed together by severe storm surge from Nicole. Crescent Beach resident Jeremy Greer described what he saw on the beach during his morning run.
"Mostly walkways, lots of lumber and an alarming number of nets, there's a whole pile of nets, has to be hundreds of pounds," said Greer.
Fishing nets from the oceans and chunks of walkways were far from the only damage in the area. South on A1A the Summer Haven area was ravaged by storm surge. Families watched damage happen in an instant.
"It was crazy to me, a whole dock just gone in a matter of seconds," said Ashton Schroeder, "it's crazy how everything can be destroyed so fast."
Nearly a dozen home sit on Old A1A directly on the coastline. That road was a dirt road and when storm surge came up it pushed the rocks from the berm into the dirt road and washed the road away. Friday morning work was already underway to repair what was destroyed. Crews cleared debris and will replace it with fill, but that could take a couple of days.
The front yard of Bill Meeler’s property was washed away by the storm along with other damage, but after living there for 20 years the damage is not enough to force him to move.
"How do you replace that ocean right there,” said Meeler, “you can't, I'm going to be here, not going anywhere, I get offers all the time, I’m not even interested."
A community battered by another storm, but not backing down.