King Tide. As the name might
suggest, it means a tide that is higher
than the others. “It only happens
once in a while,” says Cristy Truesdale,
a training specialist for a property
management company along the coast
of South Carolina. “Some years, we
might have one or two, some years
none, some years around three or four,
but it’s really just when all the weather
forces align. The day after a king tide
passes through, the beach is just gone.
High tides cause the beach to erode,
too, but king tides definitely exacerbate
the issue; it’s just a vicious cycle.”
She’s lived in the area for a long
time, providing her first-hand witness
of all of the changes the pools and
beaches have undergone over the
past few decades due to erosion.
The images in this article depict the latest
evolution of the landscape — namely,
the destruction of beachfront pools in
the Isle of Palms, S.C.
In order to help mitigate the
situation, local Isle of Palms’ officials
have tried bringing in temporary
solutions like sandbags, but they
quickly realized they needed a better,
more permanent solution that didn’t
just litter up the beach.
“After a public meeting in November
of 2023, local officials approved a $10
million project, bringing in the Army
Corps of Engineers, but it’s still only a
temporary easement,” she says. “Between
January and June of 2024, 500,000 cubic
yards of sand will be relocated to the
Palms, which requires the town to pay for
the movement of the sand, but not the
sand itself, so it’s quite an expensive and
intrusive project overall.”
Truesdale suggests perhaps the
beach houses were built a little too
close to the ocean to begin with?