Cleanup is underway at Cape Hatteras National Seashore after a house in Buxton collapsed into the Atlantic this week, and the superintendent of the seashore said threatened structures on the barrier islands are not a new phenomenon.
Cape Hatteras National Seashore Superintendent Dave Hallac said the owner of the unoccupied beachfront cottage in Buxton has hired a contractor to work on the cleanup, and the National Park Service and volunteers are also working to remove debris, after the house collapsed into the surf on Tuesday.
It’s the first Outer Banks home to fall into the ocean this year, but it is the 12th home collapse since 2020. The others occurred in Rodanthe, including six last year.
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Hallac said Buxton has not experienced a house collapse since Hurricane Emily in 1993, “But I would say the types of challenges that we're seeing in Buxton are very similar to Rodanthe, meaning that we have a large number of threatened oceanfront structures that are right up next to the ocean or in some cases over the ocean.”
He said the nature of barrier islands means the sands are constantly shifting and the landscape changing, particularly during storm-driven high surf.
“Many of these homes, which we call threatened oceanfront structures, no longer have a dune in front of them, are essentially at the water's edge,” he said, “And we have a very powerful Atlantic Ocean in this area of eastern North Carolina, what we consider a high energy surf. That surf and that ocean also is constantly eroding.”
The complete collapse of a family’s home or cottage is dramatic, but Hallac said threatened structures can impact the beach – and the environment – even before they fall into the sea. He explained that, “Pieces and parts are quite honestly constantly breaking off the homes and littering the beaches in downstream areas. That includes not only the homes, but in many cases the septic systems. So, pieces of a septic drain fields become exposed and they wash down the beach.”
The owner of the house in Buxton that fell this week said on social media that she intended to have it moved further from the shoreline, with location ready, movers scheduled, septic approved, and surveyors prepared to move forward…and was awaiting the proper permits and approvals when it collapsed.
Hallac said several beachfront homeowners in the Outer Banks have moved their houses further away from the beach this year and collapses, “Can be avoided by moving or removing the homes before we get to this point. Certainly sounds like this owner was in the process of doing that, and it's unfortunate that, you know, Mother Nature outpaced those plans. But we are very appreciative of the owners that are going out of their way to move or remove their homes and get them out of harm's way.”
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It's become relatively common to see comments on social media following a home collapse questioning why anyone would build so close to the Atlantic; Hallac said they were actually quite far from the surf when they were first constructed.
“They were built on a private lot that typically had a backyard, and then at the edge of that backyard began the boundary with Cape Hatteras National Seashore, which was typically one or more back dune or sand dune areas that then transitioned to a big white sandy beach that then transitioned to the fore shore area, which is the interface with the ocean,” Hallac said, “And over time, that white sandy beach, the dunes, the back dune area, and in many cases, even the backyard of these homes, has all eroded into the ocean. So, now there is essentially nothing between the ocean and the homes.”
Related content: A third house has collapsed on in Rodanthe, beaches are closed from Rodanthe to Waves
Although the string of collapses in recent years has made for dramatic news and social media video, moving homes further from the surf is not anything new. Hallac said, “Owners of homes, beachfront homes, in the Outer Banks have been moving houses for decades. It is very common to do that. It's well known, generally, that we have eroding beaches. And particularly when houses were a little bit smaller, they were sometimes what would be considered cottages or beach boxes. The owners would move them as the ocean was encroaching and getting closer to the structure. And that is the number one goal, to avoid these houses being threatened oceanfront structures and then ultimately having catastrophic collapses.”
In fact, in 1999 the seashore itself moved a structure away from the strand – the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.
Hallac said, "We moved it almost 3,000 feet diagonally to reestablish its original distance from the ocean, which was about 1,500 feet. But we felt at that time that unless we moved it that distance, which was significant, that lighthouse -- which is so important to American history, it's an icon of public safety and to many lighthouse keepers that served there and protected mariners from off the coast -- that it was important to make a significant move like that because that would be the only way to protect it long term.”
