Siesta, Sarasota beaches are open but still recovering

Just more than a month after Hurricane Milton made landfall on Florida’s west coast, Siesta Beach offered a respite of normalcy with the annual Siesta Key Crystal Classic sand sculpture competition.

The beach was wide and expansive as always, as vendors lined the perimeter of the sun swept competition area and visitors meandered among the two dozen artists as they sprayed, scraped and brushed their piles of powdered quartz into masterpieces.

Outside the makeshift arena, beachgoers swam, sunbathed, played volleyball and enjoyed other seaside activities as if it were just another mid-November day on Florida’s Gulf Coast.

Just beyond the Siesta Beach Pavilion, though, things were far from normal. Along Ocean Boulevard to the north and Midnight Pass Road to the south, debris piles of the vegetative and demolition varieties remained uncollected. Businesses in Siesta Village were slowly reopening, and sand remained in locations where it otherwise wouldn’t be.

Along Turtle Beach, tons of sand in high piles awaited sifting for contaminants and be either pushed back onto the degraded beach or hauled away. Some piles of sand even remained adjacent to the pavilion parking lot.

With the eye of Milton passing above Siesta Key, shoreline damage was heavier to the south, the result of the onshore winds pushing seawater and sand at even higher volumes and farther inland, the most severe conditions from Turtle Beach south to Manasota Key.

Along Midnight Pass Road, piles of sand as high as 10 feet stood between the road and the Gulf, the result of earth moving equipment plowing access for residents and contractors to condominium developments on the southern tip of the key.

Photo by Andrew Warfield

“The priority was first to clear the road for emergency vehicles and to give people access and just push sand out of the way,” said Sarasota County Emergency Management Chief Sandra Tapfumaneyi. “That was followed up by needing to do something with the sand. It was quite the operation. It was a lot of hard work on our public works and solid waste staff to get out there to get that done.”

Now six months removed from one-two punch of hurricanes Helene and Milton, and to a lesser extent Tropical Storm Debby, Siesta Beach and Turtle Beach are well, if not yet completely, recovered. The massive sand piles that once stood between Blind Pass Road and Turtle Beach are removed and, in a pleasant twist of fate, the natural reopening of Midnight Pass between Siesta and Casey keys remains that way.

“The Department of Environmental Protection gave direction that if the sand was not contaminated, if it could safely be moved. You were allowed to put it back on the beach,” Tapfumaneyi said. “We worked very hard to try to save as much sand as possible so we wouldn’t not have to repurchase it again.”

Turtle Beach had been repaired, not renourished, in 2023 using 92,500 cubic yards of sand trucked in from Lake Wales in Polk County.

Now somewhat back to normal, the county’s work on the beaches continues. County staff is exploring beach revitalization opportunities, Tapfumaneyi said, as well as replenishment of lost sand. 

It could have been a lot worse for Siesta and Turtle beaches, she added.

“We're very, very fortunate that the height of the storm surge was down in Manasota Key,” Tapfumaneyi said. “We just received the National Hurricane Center report for Milton and the official amount was 10 feet of storm surge in Manasota Key. Had that been over Siesta Key, we would be having a very different conversation.”