Delaware officials assess beach damage after nor’easter

BETHANY BEACH, Del.– After a powerful nor’easter battered Delaware’s beaches last week, Gov. Matt Meyer visited Bethany Beach to assess the damage and see the impact firsthand.

Meyer said the storm was a reminder of the power of Mother Nature.

“it’s devastating. I mean, Mother Nature, it’s easy to forget the power of water. It’s devastating,” Meyer said. “But we should never forget the power that Mother Nature has.”

Lt. Col. Ryan Baum with the U.S. Army Corps of engineers said the dunes performed as they were designed to do during the storm.

“I think the important thing to understand is that they performed as they’re designed,” Baum said. “They’re sacrificial in nature. And so you know they take the brunt of the storm so that the infrastructure that you have here in Delaware does not.”

DNREC Secretary Greg Patterson said restoring the beaches will take time.

“You know the reality is that there’s not as much sand on these beaches as there used to be,” Patterson said. “We’re going to need federal funding, with the help of our congressional delegation, to put it into place. And it’s likely to be months, even in a best-case scenario, before we get this dune back to where it was.”

Gov. Meyer says that recovery from the recent storm damage will take some time, but the work is already underway.