When Hurricane Earl struck Anegada in August 2010, it put a lot of things out of place, including five cottages on the island’s West End. After nearly 18 months of work, a team of divers has almost finished putting the cottages back where they belong: out of the sea and back on the beach.
A team from Commercial Dive Services has mostly completed the project to preserve the West End Cottages, which began in October 2010, according to Chris Juredin, the company’s owner. To reclaim the partially submerged structures, divers suck sand from the ocean floor into long tubes, which are positioned to protect the cottages from the destructive currents.
The tubes, whose placement was preceded by a series of environmental studies and current analyses, are designed to restore the area to its former state prior to the erosion, Mr. Juredin said.
“The storm created the depth of the water,” he said. “The storm created the current, so we try to put it back to what it was before the storm.”
Lee Steiner, co-owner of the West End Cottages, said some of the erosion, which caused six of the seven cottages to sink into the sand, was the result of a major wave swell that occurred in 2008. But the erosion damage was exacerbated by Hurricane Earl, Mr. Steiner said.
“Time just took its toll,” he said.
Of the original seven cottages, one was completely destroyed, but the remaining structures can be preserved, perhaps in time to reopen in the coming months, he said.
“We felt that what was there could be saved, and we thought it would be best to do so,” he said, adding, “obviously it’s a business decision, but it’s also a personal decision.”
Challenges
Mr. Juredin said conditions unique to Anegada made the work especially challenging.
“There’s a lot of bull sharks there,” he said. “The current is incredibly hard to work in. The environment is incredibly hot, with mosquitoes and no breeze and no shelter. It’s very hard work.”
Usually, the work has required three divers, he said. One diver typically was underwater filling the tubes with sand, while another operated the compressor the first diver used to breathe. Due to the shallow depth of the water, which was less than ten feet deep, divers relied on an air hose from the surface, Mr. Juredin said. A third diver stood by, ready to provide help in case of an emergency.
“The pump will rip your hand off,” he said. “It’s that powerful. If your hand gets stuck in there, you’re in trouble.”
The strength of the current meant that the divers, who lived in the vacant cottages while the project was under way, could not work every day, he said.
“The current and the wave action is just too strong and the conditions are just too high risk,” he said.
Mr. Juredin added that while his firm has done other beach reclamation projects in the past — including recently creating a large beach on Eustatia Island — most of his company’s work involves industrial projects. CDS divers regularly work on cruise ships, fix pipelines and fibre-optic cables, and weld underwater, he said.
Unless another major storm occurs, he said, he doubts his company will be busy with reclamation work any time soon.
But, he added, “Erosion is consistent on the planet. Most places are being eroded. We consider it just another service that we offer.”