“The sand dunes are gone.” After Hurricane Matthew, I was talking to a family about their upcoming beach photos and I said we can take pictures here, here and the dunes. And she looked at me and said they were gone. I was perplexed how could the dunes be gone? I guess the dunes did their job and helped protect the coast.

On the beaches I’ve noticed a lot of board walks are unusable, trees are down, a TON reeds have washed up upon shore, people’s fences are completely obliterated and their homes exposed. There are still some piles of sand dunes but the ones that are left are a lot more narrow and small. Others that are left are jagged. I know that some beaches along the coast are still closed because of the destruction like Huguenot Beach.

The picture of the building seems like just a building but it’s supposed to have sand dunes in front of it. There are a ton more “treasures” on the beach to collect now. There are also some large ditches. I am not sure if those are from the wind from the storm or something else. We’ve seen the large trees be turned into seesaws. These photographs were taken around 7th south Jacksonville Beach. It was strange to drive up to the parking lot and see the ocean their used to be sea oats and dunes that gently blocked the view. These photos were taken in the afternoon and to document some of the aftermath of the storm.What things have you noticed that are different at the beaches now? Continue after the jump to see the rest of the photos.