Navarre Beach, Florida
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Navarre Beach, Florida, is an unincorporated community in Santa Rosa County in the U.S. state of Florida. It is on Santa Rosa Island, a barrier island in the Gulf of Mexico.
Immediately to its east is Navarre Beach State Park, one of Florida's state parks. Immediately to its west is a portion of the Gulf Islands National Seashore, and further west is the city of Pensacola Beach. To the north, across Santa Rosa Sound and on the mainland, is the community of Navarre.
Navarre Beach has had the misfortune of being hit by 4 major hurricanes over an 11 year period, three of them within a year of each other: Hurricane Opal in 1995, Hurricane Ivan in September 2004, Hurricane Dennis in July 2005, and Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. Ivan did severe damage; Hurricane Katrina was only a glancing blow and did minor damage compared to the utter devastation done farther west.
Beach Renourishment activity:
On March 26, 2006 a "Beach Renourishment" project got underway to restore sand lost due to the hurricanes of 2004 and 2005. This project eventually added approximately 200 feet of sand and a 14 foot high berm to the Gulf side of Santa Rosa Island for the entire length of Navarre Beach. The project was expected to be complete by mid July 2006. However the project was interrupted several times by the Army Corps of Engineers due to 3 accidental turtle kills. Then in late July the Corps decided to terminate the project entirely until October 1 so the remainder of the approximately 40 turtle kills allowed in the Gulf could be allocated to the Corps own dredging operations.
As of August 18, 2006, according to an article in the Northwest Florida Daily News, The Army Corps of Engineers decided "that hopper dredging could resume immediately since the project would not jeopardize the current sea turtle take allotment". In early October the dredge, pipes and bulldozers returned to complete the beach restoration.
On December 3, 2006 the last remaining pipe for the sand restoration project was removed from the beach. Except for some remaining vegetation to be planted, and some dune walkovers to be built, the Navarre Beach Renourishment Project seems to be complete.
