Physical Therapy near Wild Dunes, SC

Beachfront homeowners on Wild Dunes say this weekend's erosion is the worst they've seen in decades.

Sit, listen, and wait.

That’s all beachfront homeowners in the Wild Dunes community of the Isle of Palms say they could do this past weekend as a nor’easter whipped up surf that pounded their homes.

“You’re helpless,” says Jimmy Bernstein as water washes over mountains of sandbags that are supposed to protect his home.

“It’s mental anguish,” he says.

So much sand has washed away from beneath Bernstein’s raised, beachfront home, the concrete inside his garage may crumble, again.

“I’m in danger of the slab falling into the ocean,” he says. “It would be the fourth time.”

Bernstein says this weekend’s high tide of more than eight feet, coupled with last week’s king tide, has created chaos on the island. There’s no escaping the sound of large waves crashing beneath his back deck and around the sides of his home.

“It just pounds against the house, constantly,” he says.

Bernstein’s neighbor, John Kirkland, meets with utility workers outside. He says his family has owned his beachfront property for more than 30 years. This is the worst erosion he’s seen in decades, so bad his power lines are exposed. He’s having to shut down power to his entire home.

“Hurricanes are almost better than this because hurricanes come and go,” Kirkland says.

“This has been days of relentless high tide, high tide, high tide.”

And the high tides are far from over. Two more king tides are expected in November and December.

SULLIVAN’S ISLAND — King tides and a rainy nor’easter just delivered a one-two punch to beaches along South Carolina’s coast.

Folly Beach, Isle of Palms and Sullivan’s Island all saw some of their sand sucked out into the stormy sea this past weekend. As sea levels in the region rise, erosion events like this one could become more common and severe.

An escarpment over 6 feet tall at Sullivan’s Island’s Thomson Park highlighted the most extreme erosion the island suffered from the 8-foot king tides and the weekend nor’easter.

The beach at the southern end of Sullivan’s Island, where the maritime forest has cropped up on accreted sand, remained wide and flat after the rains. A handful of beach walkers trekked up and down the shore, still wet from the weekend deluge. Aside from some water that had pooled at the town’s public access paths, it was business as usual on that part of the island.

Heading north, toward Breach Inlet, is where evidence of the king tides and heavy rains became apparent. The gradual slope that normally connects the dunes to the dry sandy beach sharply dropped off; the high tides created a substantial shelf, about 6 feet tall.

This section of the beach is where around 20,000 dump-trucks-worth of freshly dredged sand were placed, courtesy of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The supplemental sand was a beneficial use project. Isle of Palms and Sullivan’s Island both benefitted from the dredge spoil.

The town spent $646,000 last year moving a portion of that sand higher onto the beach and build up the dunes at Breach Inlet and behind Marshall Boulevard.

After the king tides and the rainy weekend, about half of that sand is gone, Sullivan’s Island Administrator Joe Henderson said.

“The dunes served their purpose,” he said.

The Isle of Palms didn’t fare as well.

Both the southern end of the island, near Breach Inlet, and the northern tip that encompasses the Wild Dunes neighborhoods and resort, were inundated by the high tides. The Ocean Club Villas, currently surrounded by scaffolding and blue netting, were hit hard by the king tides — waves reached the condominium’s foundation.

Some of the homes on the island, still recovering from damage caused by Hurricane Erin, had piles of tan sandbags stacked behind them. City leaders spent $550,000 in August to deploy hundreds of these bags to Breach Inlet, and portions of Wild Dunes, including the Ocean Club Villas and homes on Beachwood East, a highly-eroded section of the island.

A handful of Ocean Boulevard properties were guarded by the sandbags, piled several feet high to block the waves from the property. Still, a tall shelf of sand dune could be seen behind the row of houses, along with exposed roots from the grass planted to stabilize the dunes.

Folly Beach in a warming world

Across South Carolina, island communities spend millions of dollars each year to renourish their beaches. Folly Beach last October wrapped up a $22 million renourishment project, Hilton Head Island is mid-way through a massive $47.5 million renourishment and Isle of Palms in May finished moving 120,000 cubic yards of sand to protect Wild Dunes Resort as part of a $750,000 project to harvest sand from a developing shoal.

The state Department of Environmental Services estimates that South Carolina’s coastal communities spent more than $400 million in federal, state and local funds on beach renourishment from 1979 to 2023. But as the climate changes and tides rise, beach towns likely will have to pay heftier sums to keep their shores sandy and the multi-million-dollar oceanfront homes protected.

So why keep paying for sand if it’s just going to wash away?

“ Because the public infrastructure and homes are not getting washed away,” said Nicole Elko, the president of the Folly Beach-based Elko Coastal Consulting. Elko works with Folly and other coastal communities on sand renourishment and erosion issues.

South Carolina’s sea islands naturally erode and accrete mass. Sand is generally carried southward from one island to the next, and additional sediment is built up from river mouths. Folly Beach is the exception to that rule.

Folly has to undergo regular renourishment that is (typically, but not always) paid for by the U.S Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps built jetties just outside Charleston Harbor in the 19th century that disrupt the flow of sand to the island.

“Before this renourishment program began in the ’80s and ’90s, Folly didn't just lose houses, they lost entire roads,” Elko said. “ Our memories are short, but our policies are good, and we do this for a very important reason: to protect this treasure that we all love and enjoy — the beach. And in turn, the beach protects us.”

The last renourishment project on Folly Beach concluded in October 2024 to the tune of $22 million — all of which was covered by the Army Corps. While work is ongoing to determine how much sand was lost, Elko said this past weekend marked the largest erosion event since that project wrapped.

Even if the sand inevitably gets pulled away, the accounting still works out. One 2021 report by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers found that every dollar spent on renourishment resulted in $1,200 in economic development generated by beach tourists, and $130 for federal, state and local tax coffers.

ISLE OF PALMS, S.C. (WCSC) - With high tide cycles projected for the next couple of months, some residents who live along the Isle of Palms beachfront are concerned their houses may not hold up.

One Isle of Palms councilmember says the beach is in the worst condition since Hurricane Hugo.

“Tremendous erosion and devastation, and I’m in a confused and desperate state,” homeowner Jimmy Bernstein said.

He isn’t alone. Many homeowners along Beachwood East in Wild Dunes watch as parts of their homes wash away. Jimmy and Barbara Bernstein said they couldn’t have imagined what it looks like now when they bought their property in 2011.

“There was 100 yards of green tree vegetation. I would have never even imagined this was possible,” Jimmy Bernstein said.

Their home now sits boarded up, fighting powerful waves.

“The water is going around the houses, which has happened right underneath my bed. It was an area that has just eroded away behind what we had repaired,” Barbara Bernstein said.

The South Carolina state legislature prohibits them from putting in barrier rocks to protect their home, leaving them with massive sandbags, Barbara Bernstein said, which are not working anymore.

“There’s a lot that we can do that we haven’t been doing until we get into a proactive stance. We’re gonna keep experiencing this Band-Aid approach, which is probably not gonna get us ahead of it,” councilman Scott Pierce said.

Pierce said the city previously approved an emergency deployment of sandbags at a cost of $550,000 with 1,200 bags, but they weren’t installed quickly enough.

“Unfortunately, they didn’t get there in time, and the water has arrived, and we’re seeing the damage,” Pierce said.

Pierce said a new second opinion with a report on beach management confirms the city is behind in planning and execution of beach nourishment.

“Unless we at least objectively evaluate what the engineers are telling us, we have to look at some technology or some methods of retention, all we’re gonna be doing is putting millions of yards of cubic sand on the beach just to watch it end up going over to our neighbor island,” Pierce said.

Pierce said the second opinion explores the use of hard structures perpendicular to the beach to help retain the sand. He encouraged residents to watch the Beach Ad Hoc Committee meeting on Friday at 9 a.m. to learn more. Click here for city agendas with more information.

Pierce added that there is no time to delay, the nourishment project was estimated 15 to 18 months ago to be about $22 million. He said revised estimates for the exact same project will be $32 million.

Want a quick getaway practically in your own backyard? While Mount Pleasant and the surrounding beaches serve almost daily in that capacity, something else you might not have tried before, the brand-new Nest Rooftop Bar, is already proving hard to beat.

Opened April 1 atop the Sweetgrass Inn at Wild Dunes Resort on the far east end of Isle of Palms, The Nest, as patrons call it, offers up an array of colorful island drinks and an atmosphere that will make you want to stay forever on the South Carolina coast— even if you already live here.

“There is no hotel in our area that has a space truly like this nestled six floors above the beach,” said Nico Scherman, general manager of Wild Dunes Resort. “The new hotel opened with ample rooftop space…and we imagined a casual rooftop bar that mimics our Lowcountry lifestyle.”

Even if you don’t drink alcoholic beverages, the rooftop view alone is worth the effort, thanks to the surrounding dunes, hotel and pools, harbor golf course, and of course, everyone’s favorite, the Atlantic Ocean and shoreline.

“We focused on developing a space that feels tropical, from the colorful uniforms to the space that is engulfed in tropical plants,” Scherman said. “And The Nest is a mix of bohemian style, complemented by a curated beachside cocktail list.”

For a drink or two, Nest bartenders are ready to serve up lots of intriguing goodies, such as the Cucumber Mule Cocktail, the Passion Fruit Margarita, Tall Skinny Houses Pilsner, and Poke the Bear APA – all from Charleston breweries.

“We only serve local beer of the Southeast,” Scherman said. “You won’t find mainstream light beers here.”

But you will find bartenders who get to showcase their talents, providing a sort of unplanned-for entertainment to go with your drinks.

“My favorite part of the job is the on-the-fly cocktail creation and the creative freedom our leadership gives us,” said Veteran Bartender Mike Sweatte. “And having a bar overlooking the beach is not a bad day at the office.”

Interesting dishes also pair well with the signature drinks and one-of-a-kind view. This is where Chef Austin Blake will step in to offer you his favorite dish of Mason Jar Pickled Shrimp.

“It’s our most popular patron dish,” Blake said. “It’s a classic Lowcountry item, but we put our own creative twist on it— and use local shrimp to represent a staple of the South.”

After a day poolside or on the beach, when you’re not quite ready for dinner but you don’t want to hang it up just yet, a stop at The Nest will do the trick. Don’t forget to check out the custom mural, which serves as a great backdrop along with the full ocean views. You may never leave.

To learn more, visit destinationhotels.com/wild-dunes/dining/the-nest, or call 843-886-6000.

By L. C. Leach III