Salisbury residents are appealing to the state for help after flooding washed away approximately 7,500 tons of sand from Salisbury Beach over the weekend, destroying half of a $600,000 dune restoration project paid for by property owners.
“$300,000 of people’s hard-earned personal funds washed into the Atlantic,” said Tom Saab, president of Salisbury Beach Citizens for Change, a nonprofit that raised the money for the project.
About 150 property owners along a stretch of the popular state-owned beach paid to have 15,000 tons of sand trucked in to fortify dunes that buffer houses from the ocean — but most of it was wiped out three days later.
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A meeting held Wednesday afternoon was attended by state and local representatives, along with staff from US Senators Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren to discuss a plan to restore the washed-away dunes.
“Everybody’s upset,” Saab said in an interview after Wednesday’s meeting. “Right now, the property owners do not want to contribute any more from their own pockets. We’re begging the state to help us out.”
Back-to-back storms in January washed away much of the dunes, leaving homes weak and vulnerable. Residents scrambled to raise money to truck in sand and rebuild them.
Sunday’s storm brought a high tide and strong winds that sent flood water surging over the dunes in coastal New England communities.
At Hampton Beach in New Hampshire, about five miles from Salisbury Beach, the National Weather Service said the storm pushed 2½-foot surges onshore, flooding numerous streets and homes. Water levels exceeded 12 feet, the weather service said.
The conditions at Salisbury Beach would have been “very similar” on Sunday, said Michael Clair, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service.
Salisbury Beach State Reservation, one of the state’s busiest campgrounds, is managed by the state Department of Conservation and Recreation. The state had installed new public access points to the beach. Two were closed after the most recent flooding damage, officials said.
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The restoration project was organized by Salisbury Beach Citizens for Change, a group Saab started 15 years ago to make sure property owners are “looked after and protected,” he said.
“We pulled off a minor miracle,” Saab said of raising the $600,000 to restore the dunes. “It should have been a huge undertaking by the state or federal government, but it was a little not-for-profit organization.”
Senate minority leader Bruce Tarr, whose district includes Salisbury, along with representatives from the state Department of Conservation and Recreation, and community groups on Wednesday discussed the possibility of using public funds to repair the damaged dunes, Saab said.
Representatives for Warren and Markey advised the group to submit a request for federal funding, Saab said. They also discussed “sand harvesting,” or moving existing beach sand from lower areas back to the dunes, he said.
But state environmental officials have said sand harvesting “would be damaging to the environment if we harvest the sand from dead low tide,” he said. “We’re not talking about digging six feet down, we’re talking about one foot deep.”
Salisbury Beach property owners have made multiple recent appeals to the state for assistance in recent years.
After a nor’easter in December 2022, Saab said property owners “begged” the state to help replenish the sand dunes. But after 18 meetings with the DCR, Saab said the state “refused to help us and give us any money.”
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A DCR spokesperson noted that while access points to the beach, and the shoreline, are owned by the state, the area in front of the properties is privately owned.
“The Healey-Driscoll Administration remains in regular communication with representatives from the Town, the legislative delegation and the community and will continue to work with them to address the impacts of erosion at the Beach,” DCR said in a statement.
Saab said the residents’ private investment in the dunes has a clear public benefit.
“When we put sand on our private properties, it enhances the state beach that the DCR owns,” Saab said. “We spent all our own money and that’s what we accomplished at the same time.”
After the second storm in January, an emergency meeting was called at Salisbury Town Hall, but property owners were told “they would have to fend for themselves,” Saab said.
At the town’s request, DCR gave the group an emergency certification and beach access permit, authorizing restoration work and allowing property owners to “act immediately,” according to Tarr.
Saab said because the beach access permit is in effect until April, the clock is ticking on getting funding to restore the dunes.
“The sand is waiting for us and we have the contractors to do the work,” Saab said. “We need the money.”
The residents’ frustrations are “completely understandable,” said Tarr, who noted that it would have been the same outcome if the state had paid for the work.
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“The property owners deserve credit,” Tarr said. “They funded the project on their own, but it was an emergency sacrificial measure. If the state had paid for the project, it would have been equally sacrificial.”
Ava Berger can be reached at ava.berger@globe.com. Follow her @Ava_Berger_. Lila Hempel-Edgers can be reached at lila.hempeledgers@globe.com. Follow her on X @hempeledgers and on Instagram @lila_hempel_edgers.