Local

Rough beach conditions cause problems in St. Johns County

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — High winds and rough surf, a combination that creates bad conditions at beaches across northeast Florida.

We tracked these conditions from Nassau all the way to St. Johns County.

In Nassau County, there’s a high rip current risk, along with the possibility of some erosion.

In Duval county, there is also a high rip current risk.

Jacksonville Beach life guards say their biggest concern for erosion is between Beach Blvd and 16th Avenue.

Down further into St. Johns County, there is still the high rip current risk, with erosion on south St. Augustine beaches.

The assistant director of recreation and parks says St. Johns County usually has erosion concerns in north St. Augustine, but Tuesday, that concern has shifted south.
 
"In south St. Augustine, we saw water all the way up to the dunes and vehicle access ramps. So we have another high tide this evening and expect that type of impact," said Billy Zeits, Assistnat Director of St. John's County Recreation and Parks.
 
He says these conditions closed down the drive-on ramps for south St. Augustine beaches.

Locals Pat and Ed Downing said they weren't expecting the conditions to be so bad.
 
"Me and my wife wanted to drive out here and take a peek and by golly, it's worse than we thought. We had to take several shots of it," said Ed Downing.
 
"We were going to  drive on the beach with the jeep but its closed," said Pat Downing.
 
Zeits says it doesn't look like conditions will start subsiding until the weekend.

He says once conditions do calm down, that's when they'll be able to assess how much damage has been caused.
 
He tells Action news usually when this type of erosion happens, they will have to get crews out to smooth the sand down.

But he says because we’re in sea turtle season, they have to be careful with moving the sand.