Jun 8, 2009 10:30 pm US/Eastern
Bal Harbour Beach Restoration Project Underway
BAL HARBOUR (CBS4) ―
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Large trucks begin dumping new sand along Bal Harbour beach at the start of a decade long South Florida beach restoration project.
CBS
South Florida has some of the most beautiful beaches in the world, but many of them are in bad shape. Bal Harbour received several truckloads worth of relief Monday, and more is yet to come.
The first of many truck loads of sand was dumped on Bal Harbor beach to put back what has been lost to erosion and give resident who live there, peace of mind.
"As a resident, I fell this is very important to protect my property, all the property in Bal Harbor," Brian Mulheren told
CBS4 Reporter Gwen Belton.
It will provide protection from an angry ocean, if a storm hits. Mulheren and his neighbors have been pressuring their elected officials help, for years. Now they've got it and hopefully this beach restoration project will hold back the water in bad weather.
"Look at what happened in Katrina, when we don't stop water; look at what happened in Miami Beach these past few days with all the flooding. If we had a storm surge or hurricane, we would be under water and that would be a disaster," said Florida Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.
And disaster is what Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen hopes to avoid. She and other officials have been able to secure federal funds to tackle miles of South Florida's eroding shoreline, over the next ten years.
South Florida beaches generate about four billion dollars in tourist revenue each year. People come from all over the world come to these beaches. But if left to erode, elected officials say tourists won't come and Florida loses.
"I like beaches of Miami," says Manene Garcia of Santiago, Chile.
The beaches draw her and her friends here just about every year, and officials want them to keep coming back to sandy beaches that also serve as a protective barrier between the ocean and the people who live along South Florida's coast line.
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