The ocean claimed another beachfront home on North Carolina’s Outer Banks on Tuesday, making it the third home to fall in just five days on what was once a residential street off Kohler Court in Rodanthe, Ga. Two more homes collapsed last Friday, bringing the total to 10 homes destroyed since 2020.
In the images taken by WTKR News 3The tiled house appears to have collapsed into the water, nearly destroying the house next door, which likely won't last long on this earth. With the last house falling into the ocean, the local news outlet reports that only a few houses are still standing at the site.
Residents and visitors were advised to stay away from the beach in Rodanthe as part of safety precautions, due to sewage flowing into the sea from cracked septic tanks and pieces of wood and rusty nails found on the beach.
The home was vacant at the time and the owners had hired a debris removal contractor to assist with the work, Cape Hatteras National Seashore in North Carolina said in a press release Tuesday.
“Swimmers and surfers are urged to stay away from the water in front of the villages of Rodanthe, Waves and Salvo as there is a significant amount of hazardous floating debris carried by the waves which will cause injuries to those entering the water throughout the three village areas,” the statement reads. “Additionally, at the northern tip of Rodanthe and for miles to the south, Seashore continues to urge visitors to wear hard-soled shoes when walking on the beach to avoid injuries from spiked wooden debris.”
News 3 He also spoke with Paul Troy, the owner of one of the collapsed homes on Friday, who said: “We're losing sleep over trashing the beach.” Insurance typically doesn't cover related costs until the house actually collapses, limiting homeowners' ability to prevent debris from spreading from their doomed structures.
By talking WRAL 5 News Last week, Troy's wife, Sharon, said her family had owned the house for 16 years and that in that time there was “a beach the size of a football field” behind it.
“Too many people say hateful things [and] “They ask why we built our house in the middle of the ocean. It wasn't like this when we bought it,” he said at the time. “It wasn't like this a few years ago. And we're not rich people. We're hard-working, normal people. We can't afford to move it. There's no place we can move it to. The insurance company won't pay until it's demolished.”
Unfortunately for both homeowners and local authorities, the situation is a sad one with no easy solutions and one that will only get worse in the region due to climate change.