Charlotte County beaches remain closed for repairs; Red tide looms offshore

CHARLOTTE COUNTY, Fla. – Charlotte County beaches remain closed following Hurricane Milton while the county plans beach restoration projects. At the same time, red tide blooms were detected off the county’s coast.

Charlotte County’s two beaches, Englewood Beach and Charlotte Beach Park, were both severely affected by Hurricane Milton. Englewood Beach on Manasota Key has been particularly affected as storm surges destroyed the shoreline and deposited sand across the island.

Watch Fox 4’s Alex Orenczuk’s report on Charlotte County beaches:

Charlotte County beaches remain closed for repairs and red tide threatens the coast

After Hurricane Helene, the county began using the Englewood Beach parking lot as a sand drop site where homeowners and developers could drop off sand deposited on their property.

Now, three weeks after Milton, the pile of sand, several stories high, is being sifted through.

“There are several thousand cubic yards of sand in the parking lot and now it’s being screened,” said Brian Gleason, the county’s communications director. “Only a fraction of the sand in the parking lot has been screened, but it will take a long time. It’s an $8 million job and it’s going to take a while.”

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After the sand is sifted, it is brought back to the beach as part of a reforestation project. Before that, however, the beach itself must be raked of debris. He said the beach would remain closed for now.

“It could be nails, glass, twigs – it’s just not a safe place, so we’re asking people to stay away from there,” Gleason said.

As the county deals with the hazards on land, red tide blooms have been detected offshore.

Brandon Moody, Charlotte County water quality manager, said the blooms are being monitored. More samples will be taken to see if the blooms are getting closer to the coast.

“At this point, given the levels we’ve seen currently, we’re just keeping an eye on it,” Moody said. “We’ve already had some anecdotal reports of dead fish around Lemon Bay and some respiratory irritation earlier this week, so today (October 31) we actually have contractors out collecting samples from various parts of Lemon Bay.”

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Moody said the results of the sampling can be found on the website Current FWC Red Tide status map. Additional samples will be taken to monitor bloom severity.

“It can impact fish and birds if it gets big enough,” Moody said. “That’s why we’re watching and seeing how this project develops. They can vary greatly in intensity, we may have very little bloom, it may come and go, or it may worsen and get worse.”