DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Daytona Beach city leaders said they are getting ready to fix up storm-damaged beach parks over a year after the 2022 hurricanes swept through.
There are more than a dozen beach access staircases and ramps that still look untouched with damage. The city told News 6 it finally has everything in place to fix them.
“You kept being told it was in the process and it was happening but as you can see nothing has changed,” resident Donna said.
For both tourists and residents seeing the parks untouched still was a bit shocking.
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“We were trying to remember when the hurricane hit here and we were surprised that it was still looking like this,” Eden from Ontario said.
Hurricanes Ian and Nicole hit in the fall of 2022. Nicole that November proved to shake up even more of what Ian left behind.
“It’s long overdue but storms are a nightmare,” Mayor Derrick Henry said.
Henry said the city has had the money to make the fixes to the 12 beach accesses.
“It’s about supplies and just being able to get the job done,” he said.
The hold-up for a long time, he said, was that resources for supplies and labor were tied up with fixing the pier.
The pier was closed for over 300 days while dozens of pilings were replaced, and thousands of bolts were inspected and tightened.
“We needed to get the boardwalk itself restored. There was a huge hole there. So that took the longest amount of time,” Henry said.
The city hopes to have all of the beaches restored by the end of 2024.
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