Hurricane Dennis - Coastal Change Hazards: Hurricanes and Extreme Storms

Coastal Change During Hurricane Dennis 2005

The USGS acquired still oblique aerial photography both before and after hurricane landfall to better understand the impacts of extreme storms on coastal environments. On Tuesday, July 12, 2005, scientists conducted an aerial photographic survey of Santa Rosa Island, Florida, that was impacted by Hurricane Dennis. The photographs were compared to pre-Dennis photographs taken in July 2001 and after the landfall of Hurricane Ivan in September 2004 to illustrate extreme coastal change. On Santa Rosa Island, the storm eroded dunes and beaches, and overwashed roads. In Navarre Beach, parking lots and roads were covered with sand and dune walkovers damaged or destroyed.

Read the report: USGS Fact Sheet 2009-3027

Science and the Storms: the USGS Response to the Hurricanes of 2005

This report is designed to give a view of the immediate response of the USGS to four major hurricanes of 2005: Dennis, Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. Topics vary from flooding and water quality to landscape and ecosystem impacts, from geotechnical reconnaissance to analyzing the collapse of bridges and estimating the volume of debris.

Read the report: USGS Circular 1306

Hurricane Dennis made landfall on Santa Rosa Island in the Florida Panhandle on July 10, 2005. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) are cooperating in a research project investigating coastal change that occurred as a result of Hurricane Dennis.

Prior to hurricane landfall, topographic airborne laser surveys were completed to provide baseline maps of pre-storm barrier island morphology. Aerial video, still photography, and an additional lidar survey of post-storm beach conditions are being collected for comparison with earlier data. The comparisons will show the nature, magnitude, and spatial variability of coastal changes such as beach erosion and overwash deposition. These data will also be used to further refine predictive models of coastal impacts from severe storms. The data are being made available to local, state and federal agencies for purposes of disaster recovery and erosion mitigation.