Churned up then whipped by Hurricane Idalia's winds, pounding waves from the St. Johns River demolished the iconic concrete balustrades at Memorial Park in the city's Riverside waterfront neighborhood Wednesday.
The destruction comes about a year after the ornamental concrete balustrades were replaced after being decimated by Hurricane Irma in 2017. Irma took out about 600 feet of shoreline overlooking one of the broadest sections of the river at the park. The city finished long-awaited repairs to Memorial Park from that storm in July 2021. Anodized Aluminum Sheet Metal
Neighborhood residents and passersby on Wednesday got a soaking from the crashing waves when they paused to photograph or simply stare at the damage to the balustrades as the hurricane skirted Northeast Florida after making landfall as a Category 3 storm early Wednesday along the coast of the state's Big Bend area.
The extent of possible damage, if any, to the bulkhead beneath the Riverside park's balustrades wasn't known immediately.
It appeared most of the balustrade was demolished near the Park Lane Condominiums building and in several areas near Memorial Park's famous bronze sculpture "Life" by Charles Adrian Pillars that honors Floridians who died during World War I.
The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office and city workers put up barricades and caution tape around the damage. It was too soon Wednesday to determine the estimated cost of repairing the balustrades.
Arched Window With Grill After Hurricane Irma destroyed the balustrade, the Memorial Park Association had molds for the original design so the new construction replicated the sections of the barrier wiped out. That new construction included adding lighting to the balustrades based on the park's original lighting scheme.