Da-Da-DUM DUM DUM - Another House In The Drink! 6th Outer Banks Home Collapse Since May

On the Outer Banks of North Carolina, an overnight storm caused another home to fall into the ocean — the latest collapse on a shoreline where rising sea levels and severe erosion are increasingly putting buildings at risk.

The home at 23241 Surf Side Dr. in Rodanthe collapsed in the dark sometime between Thursday night and Friday morning, according to a press release from the National Park Service, which manages the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. The home was unoccupied when a storm brought high winds and flooding to the area. The collapse is the sixth since May, the agency said. Officials warned that more structures could be at risk of collapse or damage, naming buildings on Sea Oats Drive and G.A. Kohler Court, where another three homes fell into the ocean over a four-day stretch in September.

Park Service officials knew the four-bedroom house that fell into the ocean was likely to collapse at some point, said David Hallac, superintendent of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. This particular home, built in 1991, was not the most obvious candidate. At least four other homes appeared more structurally unstable, or stood farther out in the ocean, he said.

“I thought those houses would have fallen before the house that fell today,” Hallac said in an interview. “It’s just a reminder that, especially when we have rough ocean conditions, you can’t predict exactly where you’re going to have one of these acute erosion events.”

The latest collapse is one in a string of similar failures that have become a regular reminder of how vulnerable this stretch of the Outer Banks is to climate change. Seas near Rodanthe have risen by 4.6 inches since 2010, according to a Washington Post analysis. The small community is also home to some of the most rapid rates of erosion on the East Coast.

EDIT

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/11/15/outer-banks-house-collapse-ocean-rodanthe/