When a hurricane sets its sights on Florida, storm-weary residents may think of catastrophic wind, hammering rain and dangerous storm surge. Mounds of sand swallowing their homes? Not so much.
That's the reality for some after Hurricanes Helene and Milton clobbered Florida's Gulf Coast with back-to-back hits in less than two weeks. Storm surge as high as 10 feet 3 meters swept mountains of sand into communities - in some areas, 5 feet 1.5 meters tall or higher.
The fine, white sand helps make Florida's beaches among the best in the world. But the powerful storms have turned the precious commodity into a costly nuisance, with sand creating literal barriers to recovery as homeowners and municipalities dig their way out.
"I've never seen sand like this," said Scott Bennett, a contractor who has worked in storm recovery since 2005's Hurricane Katrina. "Wind, rain, water, but never sand."
The morning after Hurricane Milton crashed ashore, the roads of Bradenton Beach, about an hour's drive south of Tampa, were lined with sandbanks a couple of feet less than a meter high, surrounding some bungalows. The views of the Old Florida beach town were not unlike those after a blustery Midwestern blizzard.
