1 year after Tropical Storm Nicole, coastal residents in Daytona Beach area still struggle

One year after Tropical Storm Nicole delivered the second haymaker in a one-two punch that left behind widespread damage along the Volusia-Flagler coastline, evidence of the storm’s devastating impact remains along a hard-hit stretch of South Atlantic Avenue in Wilbur-by-the-Sea.

Along the beach, huge chunks of homes in the 4100 block remain ripped away, with sofas dangling precariously over treacherous cliffs left behind after foundations were washed away by the storm.

On the street side, notices proclaiming the properties unsafe to occupy are posted on front doors, along with a notice of an upcoming public hearing by the Volusia County Licensing and Construction Appeals Board on Nov. 13 that could result in a demolition order for properties unable to be repaired.

Nicole made landfall near Vero Beach as a Category 1 hurricane early on Nov. 10, 2022. Thanks to Ian, Volusia County's coastline defenses were already weakened. Images of homes in Wilbur-by-the-Sea sliding off their foundations made national news.

Some homeowners and hoteliers got off relatively easy while others, frustrated by bureaucratic delays, fights with insurance companies and permitting logjams, are still struggling.

"Residents in each community impacted by Hurricane Nicole are still recovering in some respects," said Volusia County Emergency Services Director Jim Judge. "Property owners along the coast are at varying degrees of the recovery process, with some completely restored while others may have yet to begin."

In Flagler, Nicole also battered the coast

Flagler County's coastline also was ravaged by Nicole.

Tropical Storm Ian weakened the county's dune system, which protects properties and infrastructure such as roads and power lines, Flagler County Emergency Management Director Jonathan Lord said. Then Nicole arrived a little over a month later and further chipped away at them.

"But it did so on an already weakened dune system, so that caused, you know, a couple of breakthroughs. It caused damage to seawalls and properties. It caused A1A to collapse for the second time (since Ian)," Lord said.

Flagler County saw flooding from the Atlantic Ocean and the Intracoastal Waterway, he said.

Some of the hardest hit areas were around The Hammock, Washington Oaks, Beverly Beach, and parts of Flagler Beach, Lord said.

But long-term repairs are ahead.

The Flagler Beach pier has been battered over the years and is scheduled for replacement, Lord said. Dune restoration projects are ongoing. Part of the county's coastline will be strengthened through a U.S. Army Corps beach re-nourishment project in Flagler Beach.

And the Florida Department of Transportation is working on strengthening part of State Road A1A, he said.

Homeowners frustrated by delays

For exasperated, desperate homeowners such as Paul Valigorsky in Volusia's Wilbur-by-the-Sea, the unsafe to occupy notice is the latest chapter in a year-long battle with insurance companies, state and federal agencies and county officials.

“We’re not doing very well and Volusia County fights us every step of the way,” said Valigorsky, a Pittsburgh resident who owns the three-bedroom, two-bath vacation home at 4101 S. Atlantic with his wife, Toni Cherry, and her sister Paula.

There, Nicole delivered the knock-out blow in an assault that began when Tropical Storm Ian first destroyed its deck, beach walkway, sea wall, and two lateral walls.

Valigorsky’s frustrations began after Ian, when he says the bureaucratic process involving FEMA and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection thwarted his efforts to replace the destroyed seawall with a new temporary one constructed of boulders that could have resisted Nicole’s impact. He had presented the agency with a permit for that work to be done by a local engineer.

Instead, the homeowners were allowed to install a vinyl seawall that failed against the power of Nicole.

In the months since, Valigorsky said the family has received little support or cooperation from any source to embark on their intention to rebuild.

“We’ve spent $70,000 on engineering fees so far,” he said. “We have several bids on seawall repairs, one as much as $660,000. FEMA paid us the minimum amount, $250,000, for storm surge. Our homeowners’ insurance paid us zero. They paid us nothing.”

The family has moved a recreational vehicle into the property’s driveway intended to serve as a home base for their son, who lives in the area, to be on the property when repairs commence. The county has yet to approve a permit to run electricity to the RV, Valigorsky said.

“Instead of bending over backward for someone who has lost all this money, they are fighting us every time we want to do something for our property and now they want to tear it down.”

Demolition of homes looms

In August, the county sent notifications to six property owners, apprising them of the intent to pursue condemnation proceedings should the property owners fail to initiate either the demolition or repair of their respective damaged properties, said Clayton Jackson, county spokesman.

If the county initiates demolition, a lien will be imposed on the property to cover associated demolition and administrative costs. The property owner is responsible for the restitution of these expenses, Jackson said.

In the case of Valigorsky’s home at 4101 S. Atlantic, Jackson said the county is aware of the property owner’s desire to install a temporary power pole.

“However, as we have communicated to them multiple times, the county cannot consider this request until they initiate the process by submitting a building permit application,” Jackson said by email. “To begin the process of potentially receiving electrical service to the camper mentioned, the first necessary action from the owners is submitting a building permit application."

In accordance with an emergency directive, the occupants are permitted to temporarily station and reside in a camper on the premises while their residence undergoes reconstruction, he said.

As a result of the public hearing notice, Phil Martin, another property owner, was forced to demolish his severely damaged home at 4115 S. Atlantic, one of three properties he owns on the block. All that remains is an ornate shoulder-high bald eagle sculpture next to his mailbox along the road.

“Volusia County demanded it,” he said of the decision. “Either I did it, or they were going to do it. I talked to them and they said turtles were more important than people. I’m not a turtle fan. Not when all of us are trying to save our homes and the area is also trying to bring back our beachfront tourism.”

Martin has invested $300,000 in repairs that are continuing at another property at 4111 S. Atlantic. There, the oceanfront deck and pool area have been repaired, but significant mold damage remains inside the house, he said.

Work on decks and pools has been slow-going

Those who have completed repairs on amenities such as decks and pools are among the fortunate ones, said Quincey Brock, CEO of Brock Mountain Land Company, an excavation contractor based in Asheville, North Carolina that started working on beach repair projects a year ago in Volusia County.

With a workforce of as many as 75 employees and a combined fleet of some 80 trucks and pieces of heavy machinery, Brock Mountain has spent much of its time driving 40-foot steel sheet walls into the beach sand or hauling hundreds of tons of sand and granite stones to rebuild seawalls and fortify dunes washed away by the storms.

With much of that seawall work now finished, the focus has turned to work on pools and decks, primarily at commercial properties in the Daytona Beach Shores area, Brock said. The company has opened a permanent office at 1109 S. Peninsula Drive in Daytona Beach, but the pace of work has slowed in recent months.

“People are trying to get permits to do their amenities, things like swimming pools, stairs, decks and other things, and it is just not moving,” he said. “I’ve not seen one person that has received their DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) permit for their amenities.

“We have scaffolding sitting out there waiting for months for the permits and nobody has an update. It’s bottle-necked with the DEP waiting on permits.”

Brock said that the company is working with four commercial properties in the Daytona Beach Shores area that are among those waiting: The Seabreeze and Fantasy II condominiums, the Dolphin Beach Club timeshare and the Hyatt Place beachfront hotel.

Out on the beach, Brock said that the company’s crews have heard negative reactions from tourists about the lack of resort pools and stairs for beach access.

“People coming into Daytona, they are mad that they can’t have a pool to swim in, that they can’t have access to the beach and stairs,” he said. “You know what they’re going to do, they aren’t coming back. We’ve heard all these statements.”

The Daytona Beach Area Convention & Visitors Bureau isn’t hearing much from visitors about storm-related issues, said Lori Campbell Baker, executive director.

Baker said that in the wake of the significant impact of the storms, the destination and its tourism partners “have illustrated how resilient they can be in bouncing back.”

“Volusia County has worked diligently to restore our beaches and shoreline areas,” Baker said. “Most of our hotels are back up and running with some having made significant renovations and improvements. Others are still dealing with issues with sea walls and pool decks, but we’re assisting with messaging to suggest visitors utilize nearby beach parks and other access points to reach the beaches.”

Many hotels have rebounded, others await repairs

In the hotel realm, many hotels have completed repairs and returned to normal operation, including the Emerald Shores and the SeaScape Inn, side-by-side hotels in Daytona Beach Shores owned by South Florida-based Hotel Motel Inc.

That company invested roughly $3 million in repairs that included rebuilding the destroyed pool and deck at the 44-room SeaScape Inn and repairing water damage, replacing generators and more than three dozen air conditioning units at the nine-story, 82-room beachfront Emerald Shores, said Jai Motwani, the company’s president and CEO.

In September, Hotel Motel Inc. bought Pappas Plaza, a shopping center across Atlantic Avenue just north of the hotels that has been closed in the wake of major damage from the storms.

The company spent $1.6 million on the purchase, according to the Volusia County Property Appraiser’s office, with plans to invest an additional $1 million to repair and reopen it, potentially with many of the same tenants, Motwani said.

He anticipates that the plaza could reopen by January.

The company also is in the planning stages to launch a $30 million project to redevelop the aging SeaScape into a new eight-story Cambria Daytona hotel, Motwani said.

“We love the location,” Motwani said. “We love the Daytona Beach Shores market.”

Other hotels have been slower to rebound from the storms’ impact.

The 323-room Plaza Resort & Spa, a key hotel in the heart of Daytona Beach’s tourist district, remains closed as repairs, restoration and improvements continue.

Jonathan Abraham Eid, CEO of Los Angeles-based Vienna Capital, the hotel’s owner, didn’t respond to requests for comment, but Bob Davis, president and CEO of the Lodging & Hospitality Association of Volusia County, said that the hotel is recovering from extensive water damage.

Elsewhere, the Holiday Inn Express Daytona Beach Shores has repaired storm damage to the building and its contents, but is still working on its seawall and pool deck, said Domien Takx, vice president of operations for Ormond Beach-based Premier Resorts & Management, the hotel’s owner.

“While we were making progress, we were stopped for 60 days due to a sea turtle nest that was in close proximity to the seawall repairs and our contractor was forced to stop because of the local sea turtle protection ordinances,” Takx said.

That work has now resumed and is expected to be finished in early 2024, he said.

Storm repair work also continues at Tropical Manor On the Ocean, the family-owned 41-room hotel that has been a beachside fixture for nearly 70 years in Daytona Beach Shores.

There, restoration has been completed on nine of 13 heavily damaged rooms, but two key outdoor areas, a barbecue deck and a larger poolside sundeck, are still being repaired, said Aileen Band, who runs the hotel with her mother, Audrey Dando.

The family has spent $430,000 out-of-pocket on storm repairs, including $120,000 to build a new seawall, Band said. Guests have noticed the missing amenities, she said.

“We initially thought that it might not be that important to them, but we have heard from them that these amenities are so critical to their satisfaction,” she said, “so we have to keep pushing to get these projects done.”

With less than a month left in hurricane season, Band and her mother are filled with anxiety about the potential for another storm.

“We’re maxed out financially, so we’re hoping there won’t be another big bill presented to us,” Band said. “That’s my biggest worry.

News-Journal reporter Sheldon Gardner contributed to this story.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Hurricane Nicole: 1 year later, Florida coastal residents rebuilding