VIRGINIA BEACH — Powerful waves from Hurricane Erin knocked down one of the Virginia Beach Fishing Pier’s original piles last week, necessitating a partial closure of the 75-year-old wooden platform at the Oceanfront.
Roughly 400 feet of the pier remains open for fishing and crabbing. But repairs will need to be made to the far end of the pier, which will be closed at least through Labor Day weekend, according to Dee Nachnani, pier spokesperson.
The pier is 660-feet long. Dozens of people were fishing Monday on the section of the pier that is open.
Harmonia Contracting Corp. of Chesapeake inspected the entire structure after the storm as well as the pile that washed ashore, and provided a report Friday to Sunsations Realty, the owner of the pier, and the city. Piles structurally support the pier by transferring the load to the ground.
“There is a section of the pier that has lost one of the original piles during this storm,” company president Eris Harmonia wrote in the report. “After inspection of the pile section washed on shore, we have determined that over the past years this particular pile has encountered water damage which caused it to be affected by the storm force currents and break lose.”
Harmonia erected a temporary wall to block access to the end of the pier until materials can be ordered and repairs can be made. A timeline was not provided.
“The fishing pier is a destination many families and fishermen travel to Virginia Beach to spend time and make memories on,” Harmonia wrote. “Time is of the essence to reopen to full capacity.”
When the hurricane was off the coast Thursday, swimming was prohibited at the Oceanfront, and the pier closed.
Nachnani owns Coastal Edge, the company that sponsored the East Coast Surfing Championships, which wrapped up Sunday after drawing hundreds of surfers to town. As the event paused during the storm, Nachnani and other ECSC organizers watched large waves hammer the piles from Ocean Eddie’s Seafood Restaurant on the shore end of the pier.
He was surprised there wasn’t more damage.
“It was Hurricane Erin at its finest, and I’m very proud of this pier and how it weathered the storm,” he said.
The pier partially reopened Saturday afternoon. In 2024, the pier was damaged when a driver crashed his car off the end of the structure into the ocean. Those repairs were not affected by the storm, Nachnani said.
Stacy Parker, 757-222-5125, [email protected]
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