Pensacola Beach Blogger

Ida brought an overbearing surf and pushed enough sand around to close J. Earle Bowden Way.  This is also known as the “road to Navarre” on the east side of Pensacola Beach. On my way to work, I was stopped by this roadblock. You can see the sand completely covered the road. In some places, you could see where the water crossed the road (click to enlarge):

I had to turn around and head back the other direction. You can see just barely see Portofino in the distance:

I’m not sure if this is re-opened now or not… please comment if you know otherwise!

Ida came with about 4 inches of rain, big winds, and a strong surf, but left with a lot of the sand on the beach. You can see how high the surf got over the night. See the water line on the walkway over the dunes? You can also see where it spilled over the dunes to the left of the walkway:

This is a perfect example of the sea oats doing their job. You can see where the surf ate away at the dune until it reached the sea oats:

See these blocks of wood in the sand? There used to be 4 foot high fences on those. The sea oats certainly outperformed the sand fences.

Other than the beach erosion, Pensacola Beach held up fine. I didn’t see any damage on my walk this morning. Fort Pickens Road is washed over, and still closed, but that’s about it!

We are starting to feel the effects of hurricane (now tropical storm) Ida. It has been raining for several hours out here on the beach, and we are starting to get some wind. It looks like Pensacola Beach will take a direct hit in this one. Thankfully it has been steadily weakening.

Down at the pier, the local photographers and Weather Channel reporters congregate… I saw Jim Cantore, Stephanie Abrams:

but my favorite sighting was David from Beach Bum Photography.  He and his wife took our wedding photos!

The island authority has been busy removing anything that hangs, swings, or could blow away. I took this from my iPhone this morning while driving. They are taking down the road signs:

Here’s what the radar looks like as of 11am:

Stay tuned for updates. I’m riding the storm out on the island, so I’ll be updating as long as I have power!