SUSSEX COUNTY – On Sunday evening, the dunes north of the Indian River Inlet were breached and the coastal road was flooded.

The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC), along with DelDOT, has had crews working around the clock since the break to restore the natural sand structures.

DNREC officials said that after this latest incident, they switched to hard shoreline protection measures such as large rocks and boulders that the department normally tries to avoid.

“DNREC does not typically use (enhanced shoreline protection measures) as we try to preserve natural resources as they are. Our dunes are formed by natural processes such as wave action and sediment transport … but due to the increased risk and need to protect critical transportation structures, this was deemed the best option available for an emergency situation,” said Kathleen Bergin, field operations program manager in DNREC’s Division of Coastal and Waterway Management.

Bergin added that the work currently being done is more of a band-aid to the problems they face.

She said they are in the final stages of approving a restoration project that is far more extensive in scope than anything seen in the area before.