Thrashing winds from the remnants of Hurricane Ian blew sand onto the Boardwalk in Virginia Beach, leaving a gritty mess that public works’ crews are trying to clean up.
The Oceanfront area experienced prolonged high winds Friday and took another hit on Monday when a nor’easter loomed off the coast.
“Northeast winds really beat us up,” said Mitch St. Clair, assistant superintendent of the city’s beach operations.
Before the weather turned nasty last week, crews built berms on the north side of the steps leading to the beach in the resort area to slow down the blowing sand.
“Sometimes, it helps us; sometimes, it doesn’t,” St. Clair said. “It helped some.”
On Sunday, most of the walkways to the beach at the North End were covered with several feet of sand. It accumulated along the seawall in the resort area, too, and crept onto the Boardwalk and in between the hotels that line it.
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“Some places are worse than others because of the open space where it just blows right on through,” St. Clair said.
At 24th Street, the sand traveled beyond the Boardwalk, into the public park and onto Atlantic Avenue.
Crews will work overtime hours for the next 30 to 60 days to restore the area back to normal, he said.
