A third house has fallen into the ocean this week on Hatteras Island in North Carolina’s Outer Banks. Stronger storms and rising sea levels are causing beachfront homes to collapse.
North Carolina park officials have warned swimmers and surfers to stay away from the beaches in Rodanthe, Waves, and Salvo because of debris in the water.
They also advised beach visitors to wear protective shoes while walking along the 70-mile shoreline, including the area in front of Rodanthe, to avoid getting hurt by nails sticking out of wood debris.
Rodanthe House Collapses
Seashore authorities have closed the beach from G A Kohler Court in Rodanthe to Wimble Shores North Court in Waves due to beach and water debris. Photos shared by the park show the damaged house and piles of debris.
Thankfully, no one was hurt in the collapse. According to the National Park Service, an empty house on G.A. Kohler Court collapsed around 1 p.m. on Tuesday. The owner has hired a contractor to clean up the debris, and Seashore staff will also help with the cleanup.
Tuesday’s collapse is the third one since Friday. On Friday, two other empty homes on Kohler Court fell into the ocean. The first house that collapsed damaged the second, which also fell later that evening.
The debris from the first house washed into the ocean but most of it ended up back on the beach, according to officials.
Early Friday morning, an empty house on G.A. Kohler Court collapsed. Officials then started keeping an eye on a nearby house that was also damaged, and later that night, it collapsed too, according to the National Park Service in an online update.
Why Rodanthe House Collapses?
The National Park Service says the oceanfront homes on the Outer Banks are usually “elevated beach-style homes on stilts.” Many of these homes are now on land that’s regularly covered by ocean water. In the past, those areas were filled with land, sand dunes, and dry beaches.
The National Park Service says that during bad weather, which happens often in the Outer Banks, oceanfront homes in risky areas get hit by strong winds and big waves. This has caused nine houses to collapse in recent years.
In addition to strong winds and waves, rising sea levels have also caused erosion. Some areas of North Carolina’s barrier islands have moved back over 200 feet in the past two years. The National Park Service says some beaches are losing about 13 feet of land each year.