Canaveral’s Playalinda Beach to partly reopen

Portions of seashore destroyed in November remain closed

A portion of Playalinda Beach of Canaveral National Seashore will reopen Jan. 3, or 54 days after Hurricane Nicole obliterated dunes and wrecked boardwalks within the popular coastal destination, the National Park Service announced Thursday.

“When Playalinda opens on Tuesday, visitors will be able to access parking areas and boardwalks at numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 only,” the park service’s office in Titusville said in a statement. “The road and beach north of parking area #7 will be closed to visitation for safety and resource protection.”

An access road extends 4 miles north along Playalinda Beach, which is in Brevard County and a dozen miles from Titusville. Parking area 7 is less than 2 miles along the access road and before the Eddy Creek boat launch.

Canaveral National Seashore faces 24 miles of Atlantic Ocean and is managed as a wilderness area protected from intrusion by Florida’s typical beach scene.

The parking areas and adjoining stretches of beach also are regularly crowded for views of rocket launches from Kennedy Space Center a few miles to the south.

Beyond parking area 7 and up to the last parking lot, 13, Playalinda is in serious disrepair, according to the park service.

“These areas are closed for public safety and to preserve what is left of the fragile dune system,” the service added in its statement. “There may be large debris and buried hazards in the closed areas along with disturbed wildlife.”

Park management is analyzing Nicole’s extensive impacts to beach and dune areas that had supported thousands of turtle nests. Also at issue is whether to rebuild boardwalks, to provide other forms of access to beaches or to leave some areas off-limits.

The north end of Canaveral National Seashore, Apollo Beach in Volusia County, received little damage from Nicole and reopened a few days after the storm.