by Ashley Shomo, Daily World writer, The Aberdeen Daily World , 11/14/2001
WESTPORT - Stormy weather has chewed away so much beach near the South Jetty that Westport residents are worried more storms could cause a breach between the South Jetty and the Westhaven State Park.
"This last storm has pretty much eroded about 25 to 30 feet of the sand on the Half Moon Bay side and another 15 feet of sand eroded on the ocean side," said Aric Johnson, a botswain's mate first class at the Coast Guard station at Westport. "It's created a little 4 to 5 foot ravine. There's a little bit of a slope there where water can rush over and if it keeps going like that, the land will erode and a breach will take place."
Because of holiday hours, no city officials or officials from the Army Corps of Engineers were available Friday.
Johnson said he didn't know what preventive measures were being done, but guessed that sand or rock would be brought in to fill the eroded area in an attempt to slow down the process.
"I know that the repairs are going to be needed," he said.
The water has been eroding the beach for at least a couple of months, Johnson said, but the worst of it occurred Tuesday evening and Wednesday night.
"It really hit hard," he said. "Within 19 hours, it took 25 feet."
The only nearby structure is a public bathroom about 75 feet to the south of the area and it hasn't been affected so far.
Rob Brown is the owner of the Boarding Factory, Jetty Java and chairman of the Surfrider's Foundation chapter at Westport. He said a breach could end up filling Half Moon Bay with sand, which would make for an ecological disaster, as well as a lousy place to surf.
"The only thing I can think of is that they're going to fight it by pushing sand around," he said. "My personal belief is that it's going to go through. It's going to breach. When it was supposed to storm really bad the other night it didn't. So, we're lucky it didn't happen."
Brown said that Westport is no stranger to erosion. The water has been eating away at the coast for years.
"Nobody ever really does anything about it," he said. "Nobody ever takes a stand on it. As of now, they haven't done anything. Nothing's been touched up there yet."
If the weather remains calm, Johnson said, "There's not going to be much more of a problem for a while"
But Brown said the first week of December often brings a storm.
"If we get a storm in that first week, we could have it breach through."
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