I love the Gold Coast. The weather, the vibe, the ocean and especially the beach.
Just before we left Edmonton, Gold Coast got hit by the edge of Cyclone Alfred. Our son, M, kept in touch and was preparing the house for the storm. Cleared the rain gutters, put away all the deck furniture and toys, put the garbage bins inside and caulked the windows. The authorities had requested that all residents shelter in place, so M worked from home and D and V stayed home.
When the storm hit, the winds were up to about 110 kph. The wind alternated with rain. The area around M’s house received about 600 mm of rain. Their house is on a canal and has a highish bank from the house level to the canal. The water level was up over the 4’ fence at the bottom of the hill and had crept 1/3 of the way up the hill. That’s a lot of water! Fortunately, the house sustained no damage.
Others were not so fortunate. About 66,000 properties lost power. Numerous trees that came down on property, causing damage. City parks had trees down everywhere. M told us city crews were driving around picking up garbage bins that had blown away of blown into the canals. The clean up is almost done now.
The biggest area affected by the cyclone is the beautiful beach along the coast. Before the storm, there was a headwall (dune if you like) above the beach with sand ramps down to the beach and the water. This headwall got hammered and in some spots, the drop down to the beach was 20 feet. The ramps disappeared and sand on the beach also disappeared into the ocean. It is estimated that 4.0 million cubic meters of sand was lost along the whole Gold Coast beach. What was a nice wide beach is now a narrow beach about half the width. M says the sand is sitting just off the beach, making for great waves that the surfers are enjoying. The sand will eventually get pushed back onto the beach by the waves and tides, but it will take years. A dredging company has been hired for a 6 month contract to dredge as much sand up as possible. In that time they will only be able to gather a fraction of what was displaced. Bulldozers have replaced the ramps and Gold Coasters are once again enjoying their beach lifestyle and I am able to walk the beach that I love.
