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In Fall of 2024, central Florida was impacted by Hurricane Helene (landfall in Perry, FL as a Cat 4 hurricane on Sept 27) and by Hurricane Milton (landfall in Siesta Key, FL as Cat 3 on Oct 9). The hurricanes led to damages of an estimated value > $200billion. The Nearshore Extreme Events Reconnaissance Association (NEER) and the Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance Association (GEER) represented by their members from more than 10 academic institutions, federal agencies, and industry and supported by technical staff from the NHERI RAPID facility and the UF Center for Coastal Solutions initiated on Sept 23 a data collection effort that included pre-, during-, and post-storm multi-disciplinary data collections efforts. The field data collection effort was concluded on Nov 22. Data includes hydraulic information on storm surge, waves, and currents, topographic and bathymetric data sets, terrestrial and seabed mapping, and geotechnical site characterization including in-situ testing, sediment sampling, and seismic testing. Data was collected in four focus areas in Florida (Cedar Key; Horseshoe Beach; Midnight Pass and Milton Pass, both near Venice) and observational data and limited data products were collected in other areas in Florida including Orchid, Ponte Vedra, Suwannee, Panama City, and others. Data is organized by site (four primary sites and others); data collection phase with respect to the two hurricanes; and instruments or data collection method. This work included support from both the UF Center for Coastal Solutions and the NHERI RAPID facility. 

Reconnaissance following Hurricane Ida. Wind damage to light structures, flooding, levee failures, coastal erosion. Field photos, Lidar, UAVs. 

Tropical cyclones and other extreme coastal storms cause widespread interruption and damage to meteorological and hydrological measurement stations exactly when researchers need them most. There is a longstanding need to collect collocated and synchronized measurements in areas where storms severely damage civil/coastal infrastructure. To fill this observational gap, researchers led by author Masters developed a state-of-the-art monitoring station called a “Sentinel.” Sentinels are intended for temporary installation on the beach between the mean tidal datum and the sand dunes and are engineered to operate in and measure extreme wind, storm surge, wave, and hazardous water quality conditions. They are envisioned as a shared-use resource—a hardened IoT (Internet of Things) platform set up in the right place at the right time to study wind and wave loads, coastal erosion and morphology changes, water quality, and other processes during extreme coastal storms. 

The focus of this project was to investigate the performance of mangroves as nature-based solutions for coastal protection. The data can be used by coastal and ecological engineers to capture physical dimensions of mangroves and correspondingly develop 3D models for numerical and experiments. 

RAPID Facility staff collected pre-hurricane coastal UAS imagery on September 26 - 27, 2022. 

The Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge, located along the Chenier Plain in Southwest Louisiana, was the location of the sequential landfall of two major hurricanes in the 2020 hurricane season. To protect the rapidly retreating coastline along the Refuge, a system of breakwaters was constructed, which was partially completed by the 2020 hurricane season. Multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary rapid response deployments of wave gauges, piezometers, geotechnical measurements, vegetation sampling, and drone surveys were conducted before and after Hurricanes Laura and Delta along two transects in the Refuge; one protected by a breakwater system and one which was the natural, unprotected shoreline. Geomorphological changes were similar on both transects after Hurricane Laura, while after Delta there was higher inland sediment deposition on the natural shoreline. Floodwaters drained from the transect with breakwater protection more slowly than the natural shoreline, though topography profiles are similar, indicating a potential dampening or complex hydrodynamic interactions between the sediment—wetland—breakwater system. In addition, observations of a fluidized mud deposit in Rollover Bayou in the Refuge are presented and discussed in context of the maintenance of wetland elevation and stability in the sediment starved Chenier Plain. 

This report contains a description of the storm and the instruments that were deployed, and preliminary observations of the storm impacts. 

This Preliminary Data Report summarizes the NEER response for Hurricane Laura, including the storm characteristics, the NEER field efforts, and related observations.