BUXTON, N.C. – The National Park Service (NPS) along the Cape Hatteras National Seashore is warning people to stay away from the beach in Buxton,North Carolina, after an unoccupied home collapsed into the Atlantic Ocean Tuesday afternoon, the latest chapter in a relentless battle against the waves of the Atlantic.
This is the 12th house to collapse along the seashore in the past five years, according to the NPS, a result of ongoing beach erosion.
The NPS said some debris still remains in the area. Visitors are also being urged by the NPS to avoid the north end of Rodanthe due to the presence of similarly threatened oceanfront homes.
The collapse comes after a coastal storm lashed the North Carolina Outer Banks earlier this week with heavy rain, coastal flooding and strong winds.
THIRD HOME IN A WEEK COLLAPSES INTO ATLANTIC OCEAN ON NORTH CAROLINA'S OUTER BANKS
The NPS said certain homes in the villages of Buxton and Rodanthe are now in an intertidal zone – an area that is exposed during low tide but partially covered by water during high tide. Many of these homes were previously completely on dry dunes.
The collapses are caused by daily exposure to winds and tides, and the homes are particularly vulnerable during any kind of coastal storm, according to the NPS and the FOX Forecast Center.
The NPS even submitted a report to Congress in December 2024 detailing the ongoing battle against coastal erosion, and the state released a similar report earlier that summer.
According to the NPS, it is working with Dare County to encourage homeowners to relocate if possible. Using money from the Land and Water Conservation Fund, a congressional program established in 1964, the NPS purchased and demolished two vacant properties in Rodanthe.
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FOX Weather Correspondent Robert Ray reported from the Outer Banks last November during the second-most recent collapse, also during a coastal storm.
Ray became stranded after water from the Atlantic Ocean overtook the local highway.
While Ray was seeking higher ground, he said his photographer, stationed in Rodanthe, saw the leftovers of a home that had collapsed overnight.
"It sounded like a heavy, strong tropical storm was pounding the Outer Banks," Ray said. "You could hear the building, sort of, making banging noise and water hitting off of the glass and the windows pretty extensively. It felt like we were headed into the beginnings of a hurricane."
The Dare County Government and state Department of Environmental Quality will hold a question-and-answer session with oceanfront homeowners Thursday.
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