Take Some Sand to the Beach

Ivan caused massive beach erosion (as much as 164 ft. in places) along the Gulf Coast, according to an oceanographer with the U.S. Geological Survey.

Interesting technological note:

Much of the surveying is done with a NASA twin-engine Cessna 310 equipped with lidar, which stands for "Light Detection and Ranging." Lidar is similar to radar but it uses light waves instead of radio waves to map contours.