A family beach house collapsed into the ocean off North Carolina’s Outer Banks in the early hours of Tuesday, authorities said, becoming the sixth home to crash into the water as coastal erosion continues in the area.
In a news release, Cape Hatteras National Seashore said a cleanup was underway at the site, confirming that the home was unoccupied when the incident occurred in the community of Rodanthe, 100 miles south of Virginia Beach.
The house sank into the Atlantic around 2:30 a.m. local time, authorities said. During the cleanup, about a mile of beach area had to be closed to the public. Debris is expected to head toward the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge.
Online records show the home was built in 1970. It has five bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms spread across 1,700 square feet. The homeowners are listed as Cynthia Turner and Heather Evans.
It last sold in 2021 for $500,000. The seller was a vacation rental company. Between 2005 and its most recent undated appraisal, the home’s value plummeted from about $675,000 to $185,000.
The five-bedroom house seen here on Tuesday after crashing into the Atlantic Ocean in the early hours of the morning.
The house photographed from behind in an undated photograph.
Previous collapses in the area occurred between 2020 and 2023, and three occurred in 2022 alone.
Coastal erosion is driven by winds, waves, tides, storms and rising sea levels, decimating the Rodanthe and Buxton area of the Tar Heel State.
The North Carolina coast is made up almost entirely of narrow, low-lying barrier islands. Hatteras Island is part of what is known as the Outer Banks.
Hundreds of expensive vacation homes have been built there in places where experts say they probably should. It hasn’t been. The islands are particularly vulnerable to storm surges and being swept away from both sides.
Development only makes the problem worse because communities replenish shorelines that are eroding or have been depleted by storms.
As sea levels rise, barrier islands often move toward the mainland over long periods of time. Keeping them in place by artificial means only makes them more vulnerable.
“Another one bit the dust…This situation will continue,” said Superintendent David Hallac of Cape Hatteras National Seashore. the Washington Post.
a neighbor told him CURLY that she was the first to arrive on the scene when the collapse occurred.
“I actually took pictures and measured from the window of that house to see how much the house was moving,” Debbie Roberts said.
“And every day I saw that it was moving, and I know that it’s going to come in before I leave, I just know that it is… and sure enough it happened.”
The cleanup effort began Tuesday and even the Park Service deployed office workers.
“If we don’t do it, we would accept the fact that this debris will continue to extend for many kilometers,” one official said of the cleanup.
Hallac added that to speed up cleanup efforts, a total of 49 people were sent to the site of the collapse, including office workers.
‘If we don’t, we would accept the fact that this debris will continue to extend for many kilometers. “We have to start cleaning immediately, otherwise it will be an almost unattainable cleaning in the future,” he continued.
As recently as May 16, CHNS was warning the public to avoid beaches around where the home was located due to exposed wires, damaged septic systems, and debris caused by erosion.
Park Service spokesman Mike Barber told the newspaper that more beach closures could occur due to dangerous debris.
The Post report notes that in an effort to stem the tide, some homeowners have taken on the costly task of moving their home from the coast. The target, despite the ordeal, is only a temporary measure.
Others have simply sold their homes to the Park Service, who in turn demolish them and turn them into beaches.