Two Outer Banks Homes Collapse Into the Ocean in North Carolina

U.S.|Two Outer Banks Homes Collapse Into the Ocean in North Carolina

North Carolina park officials were warning visitors to avoid the beaches of the Outer Banks in Rodanthe this weekend after two houses collapsed into the ocean within hours of each other.

In the early hours of Friday, an unoccupied house on G.A. Kohler Court collapsed, the National Park Service said in a statement.

Cape Hatteras National Seashore authorities said they had been monitoring an adjacent house that had sustained damage because of the initial house collapse.

But a few hours later, the Dare County Sheriff’s Office received a call that the second unoccupied house had also collapsed “and apparently washed out into the ocean before the bulk of it returned to the beach at the south end of G.A. Kohler Court,” the park service said in an updated statement.

No injuries were reported from the collapses.

Rangers on the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, a 70-mile stretch of shoreline that includes the beach in front of Rodanthe, warned visitors to avoid all beaches there. Photographs of the damaged homes posted by park officials show crumbled piles of debris.

“The Seashore urges visitors to stay out of the water and wear hard-soled shoes when walking on the beach to avoid injuries from hazardous floating debris and nail-ridden wooden debris,” the park service said.

The authorities said they were working with the owners of the properties to secure a contractor to clean up the damage.

Debris associated with the first collapse on Friday stretched about nine miles to the south of the site.

The most recent collapse is the ninth in Rodanthe in the past four years. Four of those collapses took place this year.

For those on the Outer Banks, the destruction has been a stark reminder of the larger force at play — climate change, which is making storms more intense and sea levels higher, accelerating the erosion of beach fronts.

One property that fell into the ocean last month may have collapsed because of the powerful waves produced by Hurricane Ernesto hundreds of miles away, in addition to high tides.

A combination of winds, waves, tides, rising seas and more intense storms have contributed to coastal erosion, especially in the villages of Rodanthe and Buxton, N.C., which are adjacent to the seashore, park officials said.

The shoreline is dotted with elevated houses on pilings that were once surrounded by dunes and dry sand.

The bases of many of these homes adjacent to the beach in Rodanthe are “either partially or fully covered with ocean water on a regular basis,” according to the park service.