Among the impacts that Hurricane Matthew had on the Southeast coast were some impacts that the surge had on historical sites in the area. There are a number of forts in the area, many of them along the coast or just inland along rivers that were also affected by rising storm surges. Here are a few stories about what Matthew did to these sites.
WunderBlog produced a story on the impacts of Matthew’s wind and waves on the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument in St. Augustine. While the winds blew debris around the monument, waves and storm surge overtopped the sea wall and filled the normally dry moat around the fort. You can read about it here.
CNN reported that erosion from wave action and surge on Folly Beach just south of Charleston SC unearthed some ancient Civil War era cannonballs in a non-residential area of the island. You can read the story here. The cannonballs were safely disposed of by the US Air Force Explosive Team.
Fort Pulaski on the Savannah River just inland from Tybee Island was also flooded by storm surge and was surrounded by water. A description of the preliminary damage was published at https://markerhunter.wordpress.com/tag/hurricane-matthew/ along with some discussion of damage at other military sites along the coast. The Miami Herald also has a video of this at https://www.miamiherald.com/news/weather/hurricane/article107397242.html.
