Another house has collapsed into the ocean in North Carolina, and its owner will now have to clean up all the debris
Author: Amanda Goh
Another beachfront home in Rodanthe, North Carolina, has collapsed into the ocean, the Cape Hatteras National Seashore said in a news release on March 13, 2023. The bulk of the home's debris remains on the site. Officials have warned visitors to be careful when participating in recreational activities nearby. "The Seashore is communicating with the owner of the house to coordinate the removal of the house and all related debris on the beach," US National Park Service officials at Cape Hatteras said in the statement. The area has been grappling with severe coastal erosion in recent years. Oceanfront houses have been collapsing into the sea since 2020, per local news outlet Island Free Press. In February 2022, a North Carolina beachfront home partially collapsed into the Atlantic Ocean, spreading debris more than seven miles across the coast. And in May, a video circulating on Twitter captured the dramatic moment when a Rodanthe house on stilts fell into the sea and was swept away after being pummeled by powerful ocean waves. Rodanthe loses about 14 feet of beach per year on average, but the severe erosion can spread to as much as 20 feet in some sections, per the North Carolina Coastal Federation, a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the state's coast. Although Dare County spent around $71 million in 2022 on beach nourishment projects in towns like Southern Shores and Kitty Hawk, there are no such projects planned for Rodanthe at the moment. The owners of the home, Gillam, and the Cape Hatteras National Seashore did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment outside regular business hours.