A beachfront stilt home in North Carolina’s Outer Banks has collapsed into the Atlantic, bringing the total number of properties claimed by the ocean in the region to 12 over the past five years.
The two-storey, wood-shingled residence on the north end of Hatteras Island succumbed to the surf on Tuesday afternoon, leaving nail-studded debris strewn across the sand. Mike Barber, a spokesman for the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, confirmed the house was unoccupied at the time of the collapse.
“Seashore staff are out today, cleaning up the beach to the south of the collapse site,” Barber said in an email Wednesday. He said the homeowner has also hired a contractor to “work primarily near the house collapse site to remove the bulk of the remaining house structure and nearby debris associated with the collapse.”
The previous 11 home collapses since May 2020 were all in the tiny village of Rodanthe, the eastern-most point in North Carolina, and made famous by novelist Nicholas Sparks. During the state’s recent brush with Hurricane Erin, many locals were watching two beachfront houses there, but they survived the surf.
The latest house to succumb was less than a mile (1.6 kilometers) from the famed Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, which was moved 2,900 feet (884 meters) inland in 1999 to save it from erosion.
