The concerning trend of Outer Banks homes collapsing into the ocean has continued into the new year.
Over the weekend, four unoccupied houses crashed into the water in Buxton, the most recent of which happened 9 a.m. Monday. The passing nor’easter, which some dubbed a “snowicane,” pummeled the region with strong winds, waves and snow.
They join 27 other homes that have collapsed since 2020 on Hatteras Island, a roughly 50-mile-long narrow stretch of coastline on the southern end of the Outer Banks.
These privately owned oceanfront houses are typically situated on pilings with concrete driveways and rely on septic systems, according to the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.
Many of the properties, built decades ago, once contained backyard land, dunes and dry sand, but are now either partially or fully covered with ocean water on a regular basis, officials said.
The Banks are barrier islands, which are naturally reshaped over time by winds and waves. Erosion has always been a challenge for those living there.
But the issue has accelerated in recent years largely because of stronger storms and rising seas driven by climate change, which eats away at the shoreline.
Bobby Outten, manager and attorney for Dare County, which includes Hatteras Island, previously told WHRO that officials estimate there could be 100 homes at risk of collapsing in the next five years without action.
“The idea that we're just going to do nothing and let everything fall in the ocean and create the mess up and down the beach that you have in Rodanthe and Buxton isn't palatable,” he said.
Local officials are asking the state for help funding projects that could help stabilize the shoreline, such as beach nourishment, and to protect Highway 12, the only way in or out of the Outer Banks.
In 2023, the National Park Service spent more than $700,000 on a pilot program to buy and demolish two vulnerable structures in Rodanthe. The agency stated it would like to continue the program, but needs a lot more funding.
North Carolina’s congressional delegation is pushing legislation that would allow federal flood insurance to cover relocating or demolishing condemned coastal structures before disaster strikes, capped at $250,000.
State leaders say as currently structured, the National Flood Insurance Program “provides a perverse incentive,” where it can be in homeowners’ financial interest to avoid taking proactive action, because they can’t be compensated by insurance until after the fact.
