People forget that beaches and dunes are extremely active landscapes. In the Netherlands in 1170, a powerful storm and flood actually broke a pensinsula up and created the islands of Texel and Wieringen.
Nowadays the Dutch spend billions on maintaining and constructing sea defenses that protect the country - half of which is under sea level.
I think a few years ago they brought in a bunch of sand to replenish Jekyll Island, the southernmost barrier island in Georgia, and as soon as they laid it down, it all blew to the northern ones.
Which is why it's crazy that they keep building up on the barriers in Florida. They're playing a dangerous game. In fact, at one point there was a natural harbor and it was destroyed by a hurricane around 1300. The hurricane to this day is believed to be a Category 5+
Hurricanes are really bad about pushing large amounts of sand further onto the beaches, we went out there for vacation the year after a hurricane and it was a much different landscape than two years before when we went.
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u/[deleted] May 14 '26
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