FLAGLER COUNTY, Fla. — It’s a constant battle in Flagler County to keep a major thoroughfare, State Road A1A, intact, with storm after storm eroding the beachside highway.

It’s a slim, fragile barrier between the ocean, and homes and businesses.

But, after a months-long U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project to rebuild the beach, coupled with the Florida Department of Transportation's hardening and resurfacing of A1A, proved to be troublesome for traffic and a test of patience, there is cautious optimism ahead of this hurricane season.

According to a FDOT leader, the roadway is more protected now than it’s been in decades. 

And locals, like Scott Fox, said that the project in Flagler Beach was well worth the wait.

“We see change. We see light at the end of the tunnel and what it’s going to do for our city,” he said.

Fox owns Tortugas Kitchen & Bar, plopped along A1A by 7th Street South. Opened in 2016, it’s become a staple in the community for its fare and fun.

But Fox, too, has also become a pivotal person in the community, helping found the volunteer-driven organization Flagler Strong in the wake of Hurricane Matthew.

The business owner said that he’s seen tumult with a cycle of hurricanes, capped off by the pandemic — and most recently, construction of the extensive resiliency projects he witnessed firsthand. It would test any business’s fortitude.

“Obviously, the first five years of any business is the hardest, what they say. Imagine overcoming not one, two, three hurricanes…road construction to a hurricane, COVID. The adversity was there, but it prepared us for what’s to come,” he said.

For Tracy Callahan-Hennessey, who co-founded the nonprofit Flagler Strong, preparation is paramount for each storm season and the weather events in between.

Twenty years ago, the realtor with Realty Exchange in Palm Coast moved from Massachusetts to the area. Since then, she’s relished in beachside living and “selling the lifestyle” of art and community.

But she knows with the area’s aging infrastructure coupled with challenging coastal conditions — the constant battering from storms — that property owners must do what they can to harden their own homes, which she said, “takes a lot of weight off the city with what they need to do with stormwater drainage.”

“The thing about it is, it doesn’t even have to be a named hurricane. We have tropical depressions that hover over here. It’s just educating people on what to do, how to play it safe and be properly insured. Do all the right things,” she said. “And it’s the price we pay to live in paradise.”

As for Fox, he’s heading into this hurricane season with outstanding issues from the last storm season, tackling roof and electrical damage at his own “paradise” before he can launch his long-time plans to expand the restaurant’s kitchen and redo bathrooms.

That project, he likens, will now have to happen in the off season.

But, for all the headaches he’s been through, Fox said that he has a newfound sense of security as the A1A and beachside projects wrap. 

“I don’t think we’re as worried of the road crumbling into the ocean with just a major rainstorm or noreaster. That was a major concern. I know there’s a lot of businesses, investments and homes up and down this beach that were really nervous,” he said. 

After all, Fox said that he would do anything to protect a place so precious — his restaurant — that it was the backdrop for his wedding in November.

“It’s the community, small-town feel, the beach village. Reminds me of my favorite place in the world, the Keys,” he said. "You got to live your life. The last few years I’ve learned things can change in an instant."