By Ned Steele

The beach is back.

After an extended post-hurricane shutdown and “a whole lot of raking and leveling,” the fabled white quartz sands of Siesta Beach were slated to welcome visitors as of October 26.

“You’re good to go,” the nation’s foremost beach scientist, “Dr. Beach” Stephen Leatherman, who famously named Siesta Beach number one in the United States in 2017, said in an interview with this newspaper.

Although noting he hadn’t seen the beach here personally, he was monitoring reports and believed “I don’t see any problem unless there is a lot of debris.”

At press time Turtle Beach, which suffered more extensive damage, was still being cleaned up.

Best news of all, according to Sarasota County: Siesta’s white sands did not get mixed in extensively with debris and remain pristine. But they did blow into the parking lots and beyond to the road.

“That beautiful sand is still here and the same as it always been,” said Nicole Rissler, director of parks, recreation and natural resources for Sarasota County as she announced the reopening plan.

“In some cases, it had to be separated a little bit but in a lot of cases it was able to be put back on the beach,” Rissler said, “and then just a whole lot of raking and leveling.”

“We’ve done everything we can to make it safe and accessible.”

Water quality at Siesta and other reopened county beaches remained solid, Rissler added.

But Turtle Beach, Rissler said, suffered “a lot of substantial damage.” She did not provide a timetable for reopening as this newspaper went to press.