Part One: Losing Ground

More than a third of the state’s beaches have lost ground over the past five decades.

Florida’s brand, a key source of tourist revenue, is washing away.

Read part one here.

Part Two: Broken Promises

This is what happens when Florida leaders fail the state’s beaches, part of the fabric that holds coastal communities together, much like its bridges and roads.

The shores shrink, the tourists scatter, the tax base shrivels.

Read part two here.

Part Three: Hunt for Sand

This is how beaches are built these days in Southeast Florida and other areas, one truckload at a time, as the main ingredient in the state’s beach renourishment program – offshore sand – gets harder to find.

Read part three here.

Part Four: Fixing the System

For more than a decade, the oceanfront communities of Painter’s Hill, Beverly Beach and Flagler Beach watched as the Atlantic Ocean took more of their coast each year. Flagler County didn’t have enough of its own money to fix the problem, and that meant Florida’s beach renourishment program run by the Department of Environmental Protection wouldn’t provide much help.

So for more than 14 years, Flagler’s leaders tried to prove the county deserved to be chosen by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a 50-year partnership that promised nearly $25 million to protect their coast.

Read part four here.