Fox News Flash top headlines for May 29
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A party by the beach to commemorate the unofficial start of summer resulted in crews in the coastal Virginia community cleaning up heaps of trash and tons of debris left behind by beachgoers on Memorial Day.
The city of Virginia Beach said in a news release Tuesday beach operations crews cleared away more than 10 tons of trash and debris from Chic's Beach, the mass of trash left behind from "Floatopia," a beach event put on by locals Sunday that spread via a Facebook invite.
"The city takes great pride in keeping our beaches clean, so we were disappointed to see the condition Chic's Beach was left in following an unpermitted event called 'Floatopia,'" the city said.
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Virginia Beach Councilman Michael Berlucchi took to Facebook to express his displeasure with all the trash left behind.
Heaps of trash can be seen at Chic's Beach in Virginia Beach, Va. on Monday after "Floatopia" drew rowdy beachgoers. (Barry Preston)
"I was disappointed to wake up this morning to see images of trash all over our beautiful Chesapeake Bay beach after Sunday’s festivities," he wrote. "We can do better than this!"
Members from the Ocean Park Civic League told WAVY-10 the massive amount of beachgoers were urinating in their yards and engaging in other unruly behavior.
Virginia Beach said that crews cleared away more than 10 tons of trash and debris after an unpermitted event drew a massive amount of beachgoers. (Barry Preston)
Some of the items left behind included floats, beer bottles, clothes -- and even some tents.
The trash left behind after "Floatopia" on Virginia Beach. (Barry Preston)
“Total disrespect for our bay, our animals, beach and our private property,” George Marino of Virginia Beach told WTKR-TV.
A video showing the mess posted to Facebook by Melisa Noel went viral after the incident and was viewed more than 1.5 million times.
"Stay classy, Virginia Beach," she could be heard saying over footage of cups, wrappers and other trash strewn along the shoreline as a dog sniffed through the garbage.
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Noel told WTKR she was so appalled at the state of the beach she wanted to share to keep beaches clean.
“I had never seen the beach look like that before and I had originally just posted it to my Facebook page and my friend asked me to make it shareable and then all of a sudden it really got big,” she told the television station.
Beer bottles littered Chic's Beach in Virginia Beach after "Floatopia" on Sunday night. (Barry Preston)
Virginia Beach officials said the "swift and thorough work" of crews in addition to volunteers helped get all the debris from the event clear.
"Our sincere thanks goes out to those citizens who helped pitch in to clean up as well," the city said in a statement.
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Drew Lankford of Virginia Beach Public Works told WAVY-10 that officials are trying to figure out who was behind the event since it spread mainly on social media and by word of mouth. Lankford added the organizers should have applied for a permit to avoid the huge mess.
Virginia Beach officials said they were "disappointed" to see Chic's Beach left in the condition after the unpermitted event called Floatopia. (Barry Preston)
“We could've made sure there were porta-johns out there, a lot more trash cans, increased police presence, additional parking,” Lankford told WAVY-10. “I don't know if they just don't want to be known because they don't want the city to say ‘no you can't do it’ or they’re just not familiar with the process and how it works."
A neighborhood group is now planning a meeting on Thursday in a bid to prevent another messy situation from happening again.
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