Florida yards dissolve into the ocean as waves from Nicole batter beachside properties
This influx of water from Hurricane Nicole flooded coastal areas and eaten away at beaches in the Daytona Beach area. As of Wednesday afternoon, only a few feet of sand and dirt stood between several Port Orange vacation rental homes and the sea.
Floridians lose their yards to Hurricane Nicole
Storm surge from Hurricane Nicole damaged several properties in Port Orange in Florida on Wednesday, November 9. Entire yards washed into the Atlantic. (Credit: Krista Goodrich/Salty Dog Vacations via Storyful)
PORT ORANGE, Fla. – Several homes in the city of Port Orange are inching closer to the Atlantic as rising waters from Hurricane Nicole eat away at their oceanside yards.
Located just south of Daytona Beach, Port Orange is in the path of Nicole, which made landfall on Florida’s eastern shoreline near Vero Beach early Thursday morning.
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This influx of water from Nicole has flooded coastal areas and eaten away at beaches in the Daytona Beach area.
As of Wednesday afternoon, only a few feet of sand and dirt stood between several Port Orange vacation rental homes and the sea.
Port Orange, Florida vacation homes on the precipice, leading up to Hurricane Nicole.
(Krista Goodrich / Salty Dog Vacations via Storyful / FOX Weather)
"This is not good," said Krista Dowling Goodrich, as she inspected the damages to the rental properties. Goodrich manages the homes for Salty Dog Vacations in Daytona Beach Shores.
In a video shot by Goodrich, she looks out of sliding glass doors to see waves crashing directly below. She also shows another property that previously had 30-40 feet of yard and pathways leading into the beach, but had since disappeared.
"Holy smokes, those stairs were here yesterday," she said, as she looked at concrete crumbling into the ocean.
![Waves washed away a stairway for a vacation home in Port Orange, Florida.]()
Image 1 of 2Waves washed away a stairway for a vacation home in Port Orange, Florida. (Krista Goodrich / Salty Dog Vacations via Storyful)
![The ocean draws near in this view out of sliding glass doors.]()
Image 2 of 2The ocean draws near in this view out of sliding glass doors. (Krista Goodrich / Salty Dog Vacations via Storyful)
The vacation rental homes have been evacuated, according to Goodrich.
Daytona Beach Shores condos face imminent collapse
Six oceanfront condominiums in Daytona Beach Shores, Florida, were asked to evacuate as coastal erosion from Hurricane Nicole has raised fears of a building collapse.
"The last thing we want to see is another Surfside happen in our community," Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said, referencing the deadly collapse of a multi-story residential building the Miami suburb last summer.
'Not if but when' officials say about Daytona Beach Shores condo collapse
Daytona Beach Shores officials tell FOX Weather's Katie Garner that a condo collapse is inevitable with Nicole closing in.
Chitwood and his team gathered 30 deputies who visited every unit in four of the condos to ensure that every resident evacuated. He added that building inspectors have deemed six more condos to be structurally unsound, as well as 22 homes that will likely not survive the storm.
"It is not ‘if’ but ‘when’ these buildings collapse that we're going to have problems," Chitwood said.