First One Home Fell Into the Sea. Then Another, and Another

Property owners along a stretch of beach on North Carolina's Outer Banks now have an unfortunate bond they can commiserate over: Their homes have all succumbed to the sea. Not one, not two, but three beach houses on the same block in Rodanthe collapsed into the surf within the last week, reports the Washington Post, which notes that the most recent home collapse on Tuesday makes it the 10th in the area since 2020 due to erosion.

• House No. 1: The National Park Service's Cape Hatteras National Seashore announced on Friday that a vacant home on GA Kohler Court had tumbled into the waters early that morning (photos here), and that park workers were keeping an eye on a second home next to it that was damaged from the collapse, reports the New York Times.

• House No. 2: That damaged home, also unoccupied, collapsed later that evening, per an update from the Seashore, which notes that "law enforcement rangers arrived on scene and confirmed that ... the same house that sustained damages as a result of the first house collapse of the day ... had collapsed and apparently washed out into the ocean before the bulk of it returned to the beach."
• House No. 3: On Tuesday, another update—a third vacant house on GA Kohler Court, which featured a sign that read "Front-Row Seats," fell, leading to a temporary beach closure along that stretch of sand. "It made a heck of a bang when it went down," one visitor who witnessed the collapse tells WAVY. There were no injuries reported from any of the three incidents.
• Erosion: It's the fifth house collapse in the area this year, a phenomenon that's "all too common these days," David Hallac, superintendent of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, tells the Post. It calls Rodanthe the "poster child ... for the perils of living along a vulnerable coastline, particularly in an age of more intense storms and rising seas." The Times cites climate change as playing into these conditions.
• Future dangers: The Times also notes that the homes along the Outer Banks' shores have bases that are "either partially or fully covered with ocean water on a regular basis," per the NPS. That water then eats away at the sand that surrounds the pilings holding the houses up, which then leads to collapse. The Post notes that some homeowners have forked over hundreds of thousands of dollars to move their beachfront abodes further inland.
• Cleanup: The Seashore is now warning people to stay out of the water in the area and to put on "hard-soled shoes when walking on the beach to avoid injuries from hazardous floating debris and nail-ridden wooden debris." Authorities say they're working with the homeowners and contractors to dispose of the wreckage.

(More North Carolina stories.)