Dauphin Island's Berm Wiped Out

Gustav is gone, but so is the multi-million dollar berm on Dauphin Island.
This manmade sand dune protecting homes on the island's West End didn't hold up to Gustav's high surf and surge. The sand from the dune now covers the town's main road.

Mayor Jeff Collier said the berm did what it was suppose to do.
"The berm is simply for routine type high tide, flood events, not any type of a hurricane situation. So I fully anticipated that was going to be the case in this situation."
But now there's no protection at all.
Mayor Collier said in all, the berm took about two years to complete, and there is no word yet if another berm will be constructed.

As for the sand, it will cover Bienville Boulevard until tractors sweep it back to the beach.

The Mayor says the storm could've been a lot worse.
"Certainly our biggest problem was from flooding, and storm surge. Primarily on the West End, we did have some problems on the east end as well. Our biggest challenge right now is getting the west end back up and running and that's going to take clearing the streets. There are is a lot of sand on the streets, and some of the side streets were damaged."

Mayor Collier wants everyone to know, that regardless of the missing berm, he hopes visitors will return to the Island soon.