Ponta Vedra Beach home sitting on cliff after impact of Nicole

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — One week later and St. Johns County residents are still cleaning up the damage left behind by Tropical Storm Nicole.

Some of the homes on the coastline between Vilano and Ponte Vedra Beach are hanging on by a thread after storm surge from Nicole eroded the land holding them up above the beach.

One home in South Ponte Vedra Beach was protected by about 15 feet of sand dunes. Now, they’re gone and the house is now sitting on a cliff created by Nicole.

“Ian came at the end of September, took the dunes, and then Nicole came and took out the back of our house. You can see under our house. Our house is teetering on a cliff,” Thomas Spencer said, who lives in the house with his brother, Steven. 

Surveillance video caught the brothers’ home security system shows storm surge during Nicole creeping on their home and slowly takes the back porch with it. 

“When we saw that video it was crazy because we could watch the water come to the porch little by little hit our home and pulled the entire porch away,” Steven Spencer said. 

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Not only did the porch disappear, but storm surge eroded some of the land the home sat on too. The South Ponte Vedra Dune Restoration Project was completed earlier this year, but the brothers say that didn’t protect their home.

“At the end of the day it was a washout. We weren’t hit directly by the hurricane so with us we were told we would be protected we weren’t. Our home is on a 15 foot cliff and our home was damaged,” Steven Spencer said. 

Now, the brothers are fighting for the construction of sea walls to protect homes, not dunes. 

This home isn’t the only home that has a cliff, majority of waterfront homes on St. Johns County beaches are in a similar situation.

The brothers say they hope their local government will extend a hand to help them. For now, they are hoping their home will make it through.