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We had some storm damage
In October, we got hit by two really large storms just a couple weeks apart. Normally, the wind and rain doesn't really bother us. But this time, the tides were extra high due to a super moon, and this caused us some problems.
Our property has a small creek that drains water from the jungle out to the ocean near our dock. The first storm dumped a huge amount of rain and the winds rocked the trees bring leaves and sticks down into the creek causing a blockage. The water rose until it could find another path out. Sadly, once that happened, it started taking sand with it and dug a path right under our dock near the start of our sidewalk. We could see that all the sand had washed out into the sea.
After the rain stopped, we went down to check things and found water rushing under the dock. We quickly gathered some sand from other places and slowed the water a great deal. We also dug out some debris and silt from the creek to make the area drain faster.
After doing as much work as we could before the sun started going down, we ordered a load of sand bags that we used the next morning to finish filling in the trench. We had a couple helpers to help us get 200 bags of sand off the delivery boat and position them in the water.
A fair portion of the sand bags had to be placed under the dock to prevent water from digging out under the sidewalk and dock posts. The guys handed bags to Glenn as he positioned them. After that we filled in the areas on each side of the dock where the creek washed the sand away. In addation to the bags, some rebar was used to hold a few pieces of roofing in place. The goal is to slow the water as much as possible. This allows the waves that come in during high tide to deposit new top sand over the bags.
Sadly, about two weeks later, another big storm came through along with a super moon causing even higher tides. Most of the top sand we placed got washed away down to the level of the sand bags. To combat this, and prevent it from happening again, we ordered another load of sand bags and raised the level to be slightly more than the high tide mark. It is still possible for the top layer of sand to get washed away but it is very unlikely. We have little to worry about when it comes to the sand bags being washed away.
Update November 5, 2024: We have retrenched the path of the creek to make it more of a straight shot into the sea. Hopefully, by removing the curve right before our dock and moving the path a few yards further away, we won't have this sort of issue ever again.
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