Helene reopened Midnight Pass, but for how long?

Volunteers with shovels are trying to reshape the inlet that closed 40 years ago in an effort to continue the tidal exchange of water, which was restored by the hurricane.

Sometimes Mother Nature stitches a silver lining in a blanket of devastation, and she eventually always takes back what belongs to her.

And now a group of volunteers armed with shovels are trying to help her keep it.

Only weeks after the Sarasota County Commission instructed staff to investigate a legislative solution to permit the reopening of Midnight Pass, nature took care of the job.

At least temporarily.

Raging storm surge whipped up by Hurricane Helene cut a swath through the former inlet between Siesta and Casey keys, closed under considerable controversy in 1983 when two property owners filled it in, cutting off the exchange of water between the Gulf of Mexico and the inland waterway resulting in decades of poor water quality in Little Sarasota Bay.