Videos show Nicole’s force before and after the storm made landfall in Florida as a hurricane
Hurricane Nicole’s initial landfall south of Vero Beach early Thursday morning left its wounds.
Not Ian-level wounds, as in September’s devastating impact on Southwest Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday.
But wounds nonetheless, as several videos that have made the rounds in news reports and on social media, can attest.
READ MORE: Tropical Storm Nicole moves over Florida, sweeping coastal homes and piers into the sea
One of the most dramatic images showed beach erosion so severe in Volusia County that several picturesque homes literally lost their yards facing oceanfront. More frightening, the row of homes teeter on collapse into the yawning ocean.
Volusia County’s beaches had already suffered erosion from Hurricane Ian in late September. Nicole, a tropical storm turned briefly a Category 1 hurricane at its landfall on Florida’s east coast, inflicted more damage than the beaches could take.
Another circulated video focused on a collapsed beach safety office in Daytona Beach Shores. The Volusia County structure collapsed early Wednesday from pounding surf, ahead of Nicole’s landing.
In the video, the beach office building, located at the Dunlawton Beach Access, leans awkwardly into the surf, Click Orlando reported. The video shows the structure seemingly separated at about its midway point. The lifeguard tower stands as if a sentinel amid white waters.
Buildings along the coast, particularly in Volusia County, were “in jeopardy,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said during a news conference at the state’s emergency operations center in Tallahassee.
Massive trees toppled in downtown Sanford, taking out chunks of sidewalk and roadway.
Waves took out a chunk of Anglin’s Pier in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea.
The sea gobbled planks as if they were potato chips, gorging on Deerfield Beach International Fishing Pier, Miami Herald news partner CBS Miami reported.
Video also shows a transformer blowing and lighting up the sky in Melbourne Beach causing widespread power outages.
