- Another beachfront home in Rodanthe, North Carolina, has collapsed into the ocean.
- This is the fourth home to have been swept into the sea in the last year, per The Washington Post.
- The North Carolina Coastal Federation estimates that Rodanthe loses about 14 feet of beach per year on average.
Another beachfront home in Rodanthe, North Carolina, has collapsed into the ocean, the Cape Hatteras National Seashore said in a news release on Monday.
The bulk of the home’s debris remains on the site. Officials have warned visitors to be careful when participating in recreational activities nearby.
“The Seashore is communicating with the owner of the house to coordinate the removal of the house and all related debris on the beach,” US National Park Service officials at Cape Hatteras said in the statement.
The one-story home, located at 23228 East Point Drive, is the fourth home in the area to collapse in the past year, The Washington Post reported.
The three-bedroom property was built in 1976 and is owned by a couple who have another address in Pennsylvania, per property records seen by Insider. The couple bought the Rodanthe house in 2007.
Local officials cut power to the property and marked it as a safety hazard in May, Noah Gillam, planning director for Dare County, told The Post.
“We are patrolling the surrounding areas and will likely be decertifying other structures for occupancy due to damaged septic tanks and structural damage,” Gillam said.
—Kaitlin Wright (@wxkaitlin) March 13, 2023
The area has been grappling with severe coastal erosion in recent years. Oceanfront houses have been collapsing into the sea since 2020, per local news outlet Island Free Press.
In February 2022, a North Carolina beachfront home partially collapsed into the Atlantic Ocean, spreading debris more than seven miles across the coast.
And in May, a video circulating on Twitter captured the dramatic moment when a Rodanthe house on stilts fell into the sea and was swept away after being pummeled by powerful ocean waves.
Rodanthe loses about 14 feet of beach per year on average, but the severe erosion can spread to as much as 20 feet in some sections, per the North Carolina Coastal Federation, a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the state’s coast.
Although Dare County spent around $71 million in 2022 on beach nourishment projects in towns like Southern Shores and Kitty Hawk, there are no such projects planned for Rodanthe at the moment.
The owners of the home, Gillam, and the Cape Hatteras National Seashore did not immediately respond to Insider’s requests for comment outside regular business hours.
