Richard Glessner/Melissa Noel/FacebookMemorial Day has been and gone, but it seems the mess left behind by revellers remains as Virginia Beach residents are left furious over piles of rubbish discarded on the shore.
Volunteers from Virginia Beach Public Works flocked to the Chic’s Beach area of Virginia Beach before dawn on Monday in a bid to clean up the mess left behind from the annual ‘Floatopia’ party.
Flotopia is a yearly event that sees thousands of people take to the waters in boats and floats in celebration of Memorial Day.
Describing the scenes of the event on 13News Now, a Virginia Beach resident said:
It was an absolute mad house, the beach, you couldn’t even hardly tell where the beach ended there were so many people.
Just nine volunteers from Virginia Beach Public Works gathered to collect a whopping 10 tons of rubbish from the shore, which is 10 times more than is usually collected after a normal weekend at the tourist spot.
Melissa NoelVirginia Beach Public Works spokesman Drew Lankford told WCNC-TV:
It was food wrappers, cans, bottles, pieces of floats, towels, everything. It was almost like they saw a tornado coming and everybody just got up and ran for safety and left everything there.
Residents and officials from the area have shared their dismay over the mess left behind from the traditional event.
I was disappointed to wake up this morning to see images trash all over our beautiful Chesapeake Bay beach after Sunday’s festivities. We can do better than this! Let’s work together to keep our City beautiful. #VirginiaBeach #chesapeakebay #savethebay pic.twitter.com/3zFEyv56kR
— Michael F. Berlucchi (@mfberlucchi) May 27, 2019
City councilman Michael F. Berlucchi wrote on Twitter:
I was disappointed to wake up this morning to see images trash all over our beautiful Chesapeake Bay beach after Sunday’s festivities.
We can do better than this! Let’s work together to keep our City beautiful.
Richard GlessnerVirginia Beach resident Linda Berardi wrote on Facebook:
Each one of you is a piece of trash- you left a piece of your ignorant $@@ on the beach.
You are NOT welcome. Go back to your trash heap neighborhoods and don’t come back again!
Mari Kelley added:
This is disgusting! How can people be so disrespectful of mother earth, our water, our land and our fellow humanity? People have to stop this abuse.
Another resident joked the event should be moved to a landfill next year, writing ‘there’s a pond behind the landfill you all can float in. You should feel more at home there.’
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Emma Rosemurgey is an NCTJ trained Journalist who started her career by producing The Royal Rosemurgey newspaper in 2004, which kept her family up to date with the goings on of her sleepy north east village. She graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in Preston and started her career in regional newspapers before joining Tyla (formerly Pretty 52) in 2017, and progressing onto UNILAD in 2019.