The Sanibel causeway did not collapse. At least one precast slab got smacked up off the piers by a rising wave and dislodged. The same kinda barge crane that set it in place during original construction can put it ... or a new one... back in place. Weeks, not months. It could be done in days if there weren’t other damages over a large area.
Single source (so far) report has at least 3 dislodged slabs. Till I see damaged piers, or high bridge spans out, that causeway is a short term temporary problem. I’m not alone.
Those road crews on the causeway approach aren’t out there doing busy work. They mean to open that artery.
The pavement ‘floated up’ and got pushed sideways. Any kind of real current would have cut huge channels in the gravel roadbed, requiring material and heavy equipment and time... but you don’t see that here. This is a chuckhole. A big one, but simply needs resurfaced.
The real problems, if there are real problems, are out on Sanibel. Periwinkle Way and Casa Ybel intersection saw 3.5 feet of live surge before the cam cut off.
I had a source claiming Periwinkle Way averages 20 meters of elevation above mean sea level. My gut says feet, not meters. Either way, it is the backbone of the island, the highest point.
3.5 feet of lightly active surge may not take frame structures. It will not take steel reinforced concrete.
23.5 feet of violently active surge can take a lot more.
Barrier islands frequently change shape, size, and configuration. Breaches, passes, islands, call them what you will, it’s what shifting sand does along the coast.
Point is, we don’t know till we get eyes on info. The Sanibel/Captiva/N.Captiva... sandpile... is there for a reason. Mother Nature wants it there. The eddies and swirls and currents that put it there haven’t changed. Helicopters will be up today. Maybe not out that far, but tomorrow or Friday, for sure.
We’ll know.
For now we wait. Happy or not. I choose happy.
For now.
Check out:
https://freerepublic.com/focus/news/4095453/posts?page=2161#2161
Also #2152. This will not be fixed so easily :(
I was intrigued last year on my visit to Sanibel how much mangrove growth there was there. Were it not for that plant a lot of the peninsula would have washed away long ago.