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Plastic foam and other debris washes ashore in Milton's wake in Palm Beach

Posted on by Kennedy
Plastic foam and other debris washes ashore in Milton's wake in Palm Beach

The city of Palm Beach was spared the wrath of Hurricane Milton and the tornadoes it unleashed across Florida, but the storm's effects are being felt here.

Debris washed up on the city's beaches, and over the weekend residents and Friends of Palm Beach workers spent hours picking up what could be Milton's most significant impact on the island: plastic foam covering the shoreline.

According to a report from FOX 35 Orlando, the same material also washed up on Brevard County beaches.

The foam appeared shortly after Hurricane Milton left the state, North End resident Dragana Connaughton told the Daily News on Monday.

“I was down by the ocean on Thursday night and there was foam everywhere as far as the eye could see,” she said.

The amount of foam was staggering, said Diane Buhler, founder of Friends of Palm Beach.

The organization collected 71 trash bags full of foam in just four hours Saturday along the shoreline stretching from Palm Beach Inlet south to Mediterranean Road, she said.

Buhler and beach cleanup crews interviewed as part of the FOX 35 Orlando report said they believe the pieces of foam are the remnants of homes destroyed by the multiple tornadoes caused by Milton.

Council President Bobbie Lindsay joined other North End residents over the weekend to clean up the beach, Connaughton said. Connaughton encouraged residents to do their part to keep the beaches clean.

“I just encourage everyone who goes to the beach to grab a trash bag and do their duty to keep our beaches clean,” she said.

The city collects filled garbage bags that are left at the various riverside entrances. This is thanks to an agreement between Lindsay and the Department of Public Works, Director Paul Brazil told the Daily News on Monday.

“I told her to ask residents to leave the bags near the trash cans at the beach entrances and our teams would pick them up,” Brazil said in an email.

While foam makes up the majority of marine debris washing up on the island's Atlantic coast, there were other items as well, including two small boats. One washed ashore near the 1800 block of South Ocean Boulevard, while the other was stranded near Jungle Road.

Buhler said the boat found near Jungle Road had a sign saying it had been abandoned at Phil Foster Park on Riviera Beach.

Friends of Palm Beach doesn't have a community beach cleanup planned for the immediate future, but Buhler says anyone can grab one of the buckets at Midtown Beach and Phipps Ocean Park and do their part.

“Just go to the beach,” she said.

This story has been updated because an earlier version contained inaccuracies.

Diego Diaz Lasa is a journalist at the Palm Beach Daily NewsPart of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at [email protected].

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