While the Lowcountry breathed a collective sigh of relief as Hurricane Irene grazed the South Carolina coast, she still left her mark, most notably on the beaches of Charleston. Irene ate away dunes, gnawed at houses on the typically erosional ends of islands, and swallowed sea turtle nests just days or weeks from hatching. On Folly Beach, Sidney Riggs stood on a dune walkover damaged by Irene and seemed somewhat shell-shocked. Riggs lives on East Ashley Avenue along the popular surfing spot known as The Washout. He built and moved into the house in 2006. "In the past 24 hours, this area has totally changed," the retiree said Saturday morning. "To look in either direction, the erosion is overwhelming. It's absolutely heartbreaking." Nearby, Mayor Tim Goodwin, who was grateful that Irene was not a direct hit, was assessing the damage with his wife, Charlotte, and Folly Beach Public Safety personnel. "It seems like both ends of the island fared worse than the middle," said Goodwin, noting that Folly Beach County Park on the west end of the island was "brutalized." The park will remain closed today as park officials continue assessing it. On the east end of the island, a city official met with a property manager to assess the safety of several houses along Summer Place Drive where stormwater washed beneath houses. Goodwin said he hopes the federal government will offer "mini-grants" for beach communities damaged by Irene to renourish sand, and that Folly is currently on the Army Corps of Engineers budget in 2013 for an $18 million grant for a major project. Folly already has saved the $2.2 million for the match. While it's no surprise that the erosional Folly took a hit from Irene, Sullivan's Island -- which generally is an accreting, not eroding, beach -- also got scraped up. Fire Chief Anthony Stith was checking out the beach shortly after sunrise Saturday and somberly said, "It flattened our beach out completely. It's a different beach out here this morning." He was among those at the beach Friday night when Irene's rough waves, timed with an astronomical high tide, sent water up beach paths and into dunes, wiping out some secondary dunes that were a year or more in the making. The most erosional area of Sullivan's Island -- the beach from Station 29 to Breach Inlet -- was hit the hardest. Aaron and Linda Nettles, who built their first house on Marshall Boulevard in 1971 and rebuilt it after Hurricane Hugo, were busy cleaning up Saturday morning. "We've got a lot of damage, but I'm just glad we still have a house," she said. "We're hopeful that we don't have any more bad storms this year." Aaron Nettles said the storm is the latest reminder to state officials that they should allow homeowners in erosional areas to do more to protect their property than put out sandbags. "Sandbags don't do anything; they just wash away," he said. Meanwhile, some Sullivan's Island residents checked out a house being built on an erosional lot at 3117 Marshall Blvd. Irene scoured about half of the sand from underneath the house. Other beaches fared better. On the Isle of Palms, Fire Chief Ann Graham said erosion was minimal, the worst coming at the Ocean Club at Wild Dunes. "About 90 percent of the beach has some kind of erosion, but nothing significant and not as bad as we expected." However, Irene did hurt the remaining nests of sea turtles on Isle of Palms and Sullivan's Island. "I'm kind of mad that Irene hit our nests so hard," said Mary Pringle, project leader for the Turtle Team. Of the 23 nests that remained on both islands, 14 were lost to Irene, Pringle said. Until Friday, the hatch rate for the nests had been a remarkable 85 percent. A total of 44 nests were laid on the two islands this year. Of the beaches closest to Charleston via car, Kiawah Island fared the best. "We have very, very minor damage," said Mayor Steven Orban. "We lost a foot or two of dunes. We were very lucky."

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