North Carolina park officials warned visitors to avoid Outer Banks beaches in Rodanthe this weekend after two homes collapsed into the ocean within hours of each other.
In the early hours of Friday, an unoccupied home on GA Kohler Court collapsed, the National Park Service said in a statement.
Cape Hatteras National Seashore officials said they were monitoring an adjacent home that sustained damage from the initial house collapse.
But hours later, the Dare County Sheriff’s Office received a call that the second unoccupied home had also collapsed “and apparently washed away into the ocean before most of it washed back onto the beach at the south end of GA Kohler Court,” the parks department said in an updated statement.
No injuries were reported as a result of the collapses.
Rangers at Cape Hatteras National Seashore, a 70-mile stretch of shoreline that includes the beach in front of Rodanthe, have advised visitors to avoid all beaches in the area. Photos of damaged homes released by park officials show piles of collapsed debris.
“The Seashore urges visitors to stay out of the water and wear hard-soled shoes when walking on the beach to avoid injury from dangerous floating debris and nail-embedded wood debris,” the park service said.
Authorities said they were working with the owners of the properties to find a contractor who could clean up the damage.
Debris associated with Friday’s first collapse extended about nine miles south of the site.
The most recent collapse is the ninth at Rodanthe in the last four years. Four of those collapses have occurred this year.
For residents of the Outer Banks, the destruction is a stark reminder of the larger force at play: climate change, which is making storms more intense and sea levels higher, accelerating beach erosion.
A property that fell into the ocean last month may have collapsed because of powerful waves produced by Hurricane Ernesto hundreds of miles away, in addition to high tides.
A combination of winds, waves, tides, rising sea levels and more intense storms has contributed to coastal erosion, particularly in the North Carolina towns of Rodanthe and Buxton, which are adjacent to the oceanfront, park officials said.
The shore is dotted with houses raised on stilts that were once surrounded by dunes and dry sand.
According to the park service, the bases of many homes adjacent to Rodanthe Beach are “partially or completely covered by seawater on a regular basis.”
Water erodes the sand around the piles that support houses, which can increase the risk of collapse.
