Brevard beaches hit hard by erosion due to Matthew

On Satellite Beach, some of the dunes are missing after Hurricane Matthew caused some heavy beach erosion.

Before Cayden and Cayson Badis even started playing on the beach on Monday, they immediately noticed something different here.

“There’s so little beach left," said Cayden, who expressed sadness, "because I love playing on the beach,” he added.

Cayden’s mother Shelia explains, “We came here the day before the storm and this was a nice gentle slope all the sea oats were in place.” 

Brevard County beach experts say around 30 feet of sand was lost from the top of Satellite Beaches, as well as Cocoa and Indian Atlantic Beaches.  Items that have never been seen before, were exposed.

“We come to this beach often, we’ve never seen this buried concrete before.”

County officials say the 6800 block of South Melbourne Beach also suffered beach erosion, where three to 10 feet of sand was lost.   

But for the Badis famiy, it doesn’t matter. 

“Nothing will prevent us from coming back to the beach," Sheila says. "This is our happy place and we only live five miles away and we love that.”

Officials say they have continuous beach re-nourishment programs throughout the year to deal with the beach erosion.  While they survey each year, they replace the sand every three to six years. They’re still estimating damage from Matthew and will decide how to deal with the beach erosion afterwards.