MARTIN COUNTY — While Hurricane Nicole largely spared Martin County from significant damage, not all portions of the community came away unscathed, the county administrator said Thursday.
“The large wind field, 18-foot seas and extreme high tides resulted in extensive beach erosion along the entire coast,” County Administrator Don Donaldson said at a late morning briefing.
Three hundred feet of Indian River Drive was washed out just north of Jensen Beach Boulevard, he said.
There were other locations compromised, though initial repairs are in the works and officials expect Indian River Drive to reopen Thursday.
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While a large portion of Southeast MacArthur Boulevard on Hutchinson Island had been closed earlier in the day, Donaldson said it’s been reopened.
Sally Waite, emergency management director, said shelters were closing, and there are reports of some water damage to homes.
It was a point echoed by state Rep. Toby Overdorf (R-Palm City), who said he was at a couple of homes Thursday morning.
He urged residents to document the damage and have their insurance policy available.
Donaldson said some projects completed before Nicole helped mitigate the impact.
“We did haul a significant amount of sand, over 700 tons, to Bathtub Beach,” Donaldson said.
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He said up to three feet of storm surge was recorded.
“Right now we’re still recording over one foot of storm surge on top of the high tides,” Donaldson said.
Martin County Fire Chief Chad Cianciulli said there were reports of homes with water damage in the Lighthouse Point area in Palm City.
“We did have multiple medical calls throughout the storm. We did have a house fire throughout the storm,” Cianciulli said. “We did have outside fires related to the storm, directly related. We also had a boat fire that was related in the very infancy of the storm.”