WTOC, Savannah, Georgia, news, weather and sports | Cabin Owners on Hunting Island Fight Mother Nature to Stay Afloat

Cabin Owners on Hunting Island Fight Mother Nature to Stay Afloat

Days of heavy rains and wind pounding the coastline are causing more erosion problems. We've told you about Sapelo Island and Tybee. But there's another island being threatened.

Hunting Island State Park is a real gem and really the only public beach in northern Beaufort County. But now, the beach and cabins are being threatened.

Things aren't looking so good, especially for homeowners who have cabins on the island. They're having to fight Mother Nature just to keep them standing.

With every strong wave, cabins are literally washing away.

"It's just taken everything," said cabin owner Mike Altman. "I mean you can't stop these rip currents, they're really hurting us. We've had hurricanes that didn't do this."

But many like Altman are doing everything they can to save these family treasures, especially after the state had to tear down two of its cabins this week due to the erosion. Altman's even using what used to be the back deck as a shield to protect the cabin and the road.

"This is our decking right here, that we used to barbecue on, sit on, walk on," said Altman. "We're not trying to save our own property here but we're trying to help Hunting Island also. We enjoy this island, we live this island."

While Hunting Island is known for its erosion, many homeowners blame all of this on the state for the way it handled the recent renourishment project here.

"At high tide we had 200 feet of beach and when the state finished putting their groins in, all of a sudden the tide was forced up here," said Bernie Kole, referring to the rigid structures built out from a shore to protect the shore from erosion. "We noticed the force of tide was redirected to here on this point of the island and we were not getting replenishment sand, which normally flows down the beach with the tide."

While homeowners try to fight Mother Nature, officials at Hunting Island say they've applied to get an emergency order from the state to sandbag the area or scrape the sand to build dunes, but their requests have been denied. Now their hands are tied.

"We're monitoring safety issues, trying to help folks with anything we can give them, but essentially right now, there's nothing we can do," said Jeff Atkins, manager at Hunting Island.

"We're trying to save it," said Atlman. "We're doing everything we possibly can and I don't think the people who okays this sand scraping is aware of what we're going through down here."

"If it continues and we're not able to maintain it, then we won't have a cabin," said owner Robert Gecy.

Official from OCRM, the state agency which grants permits to sandbag and scrape the sand to build dunes, say the reason Hunting Island's permits didn't get approval is because they didn't deem this as an emergency situation like a hurricane.

They also say that Hunting Island can apply for a regular permit but that could take at least 15 days to a couple of months to get approval.

Reported by: Jaime Dailey, jdailey@wtoc.com