Debris associated with the first of two houses to collapse in the Outer Banks over the weekend. Photo: National Parks Service // Flickr
Two more Outer Banks houses have collapsed within the same day in Rodanthe, North Carolina. These were the eighth and ninth house collapses in the region in the past four years, with four taking place in 2024 alone.
According to a National Parks Service press release, an unoccupied house at 23001 G A Kohler Court in Rodanthe, North Carolina collapsed into the ocean the morning of September 20. As a result of that collapse, another unoccupied house located 23009 G A Kohler Court also sustained damage. Later that night, around 9:18 p.m., the second house collapsed and was washed into the ocean, before the bulk of it returned to the beach at the south end of G A Kohler court. Since then, debris associated with the collapses has been observed at least 20 miles south of the collapse sites, as Mike Barber, a public affairs specialist at Cape Hatteras National Seashore, told USA Today in a statement.
These were the eighth and ninth houses to collapse in Cape Hatteras National Seashore in the past four years, with four of the collapses taking place just this year. Before Friday, the most recent loss was on August 16, 2024, an unoccupied house at 23214 Corbina Drive, Rodanthe. The collapses have been caused by beachfront erosion due to increasingly intense storms and higher sea levels. “The effects of erosion in these villages have resulted in structures being present on the open beachfront or in the intertidal area,” explained the National Parks Service in a statement on the ongoing issue, “which may result in reduced beach access and safety for visitors, a loss of habitat for shorebirds and sea turtles, and, sometimes, structure collapses on Seashore beaches, resulting in many miles of beach debris.”
The National Park Service is urging visitors to avoid the beach and stay out of the water near the north end of Rodanthe and potentially for miles to the south, due to dangerous debris from the collapse site. It added that a debris removal contractor has been hired by the property owner, and further debris removal activities may be conducted by national Park Service staff.
