North Carolina Coastal Town Braces For Nor'easter Season: How Many More Homes Will Fall Into The Ocean?

House on the left in process of collapsing into the
ocean on September 24 in Rodanthe, North Carolina
It bumped into the house on the right, damaging it
and that house is doomed to collapse, too.

Seemingly centuries ago, really just weeks ago,  back in mid-September before we had to deal with Hurricanes Helene and Milton, the coastal town of Rodanthe, on North Carolina's Outer Banks, had been facing the kind of damage you sometimes see in hurricanes.   

Just a slower motion version of it. Without the actual hurricane. 

Neither hurricanes Helene and Milton really affected Rodanthe. But before those two storms, all it took was a routine easterly fetch of wind and waves off the Atlantic Ocean to cause more problems there. 

Houses are falling into the water, as you can see in the video in this link, for instance.  Also, theres's a couple good news videos of this situation that adds more good context to this post.

According to a September 24 Washington Post piece:

"The latest came early Tuesday afternoon when the ocean claimed an unoccupied house at 23039 G.A. Kohler Ct. It marked the third such home collapse since Friday on this erosion-plagued stretch of the Outer Bans - and the 10th home to fall since 2020.

Rodanthe, home to some the most rapid rates of erosion on the East Coast, has become a poster child in recent years for the perils of living along a vulnerable coastline, particularly in an age of more intense storms and rising seas. 

Multiple homeowners in this small community have raced to relocate their homes farther from the shoreline, often at a cost of thousands of dollars. Others have tried to move their homes further from th encroaching tides, only to run out of time."

Three homes fell into the ocean in less than a week. Days before the house described above fell in, yet another one did. That failure caused added damage to a precariously situated house next door to fall into the waves. 

The one the Washington Post described in that September 24 article appears to have damaged the one next to it, so that one should go soon if it hasn't already. A nearby red colored house also looks doomed. 

Earlier this month, the Board of Commissioners in Dare County, where Rodanthe is located, voted to apply for a FEMA Flood Mitigation Assistance grant. A state project director is reaching out to eligible homeowners to see if they're interested in the voluntary program.

The program targets 20 potential properties in Rodanthe that are in or close to the ocean and within 300 feet of stable vegetation. The whole process takes three or four years, so we're probably going to see more homes fall into the ocean.  

Aerial view in Rondanthe, North Carolina taken a couple
months ago. Four houses in the foreground
have since collapsed into the ocean, 

Which of course is a problem since each collapse causes a huge mess. Debris spreads miles up and down the beach with each collapse, and it all has to be picked up. I'm sure sharp objects like glass shards and nails are left behind, too. 

Inches matter with sea level rise. According to a Washington Post article from March, sea levels have risen seven inches in recent decades at Oregon Inlet, near Rodanthe. A stretch along Seagull Street in Rodanthe loses about a dozen feet or more per year to erosion. 

I'm also sure there was more erosion on the Outer Banks and elsewhere along the Atlantic Seaboard last week.  We just had a full super moon - named because the moon is a little closer to Earth than usual and looks bigger than it normally does,

This super moon contributed to King Tides that caused "sunny weather flooding" along coastlines from New England to  Florida. This never used to be a real problem decades ago, but sea level rise has made even just a full moon in calm weather cause coastal flooding. 

A nor'easter far off shore probably also contributed to swells that probably added to the erosion late this past week. Video of Buxton, North Carolina, a little south of Rodanthe, showed King Tide waves smashing ashore, causing plenty of flooding and erosion under crystal clear blue skies. 

Speaking of nor'easters, even though hurricane season is about to wane, nor'easter season is just ramping up.  This will no doubt increase the pressure on homes on North Carolina's Outer Banks, and up and down the East Coast for that matter. 

It'll be interesting to see how many more houses and buildings fall into the ocean this winter, especially if it's really stormy out there. 

VIDEOS

CBS News video, first aired Wednesday, on the challenges that face North Carolina's Outer Banks, focusing on Rodanthe. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that: 

Television station WRAL has more on this. Again, click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

Historic Cape Cod House Miraculously Survives Nor'easter, Will Live Another Day

This historic house teetering on the eroding dunes in Truro,
Massachusetts narrowly escaped falling into the Atlantic
Ocean during a late January nor'easter. It was moved
back from the brink shortly after the storm.  Photo
by David Ryan, Boston Globe. 

The day before a huge nor'easter struck New England on January 29, images of a house in Truro, Massachusetts made the rounds.  It was teetering over the edges of fast-eroding sand dunes. 

The house on outer Cape Cod would surely succumb to the waves the next day. 

It would have been a shame, really.  The house was built as long ago as 1850, (nobody is quite sure)  and nobody likes to see historic structures go.

Crews frantically reinforced the pilings under the house hours before the storm arrived and somehow, it worked! More of the sand dunes were swept away in the storm, and the only a small corner of the house was still on land.  But the pilings somehow held.

That would have been a brief victory. The next storm would have finished the house off. But more good fortune arrived. The house has been moved further back and is at a temporary spot firmly on sand dunes. They're looking for a permanent place for it. 

The Boston Globe reports the home is owned by the Dennis family, whoever they are, who could not b reached for comment.  The Dennises paid to move the house to its temporary spot off the stilts.  They'll need to obtain permits from the town of Truro to move it to a permanent location. 

I do hope that works out, as the historic house has gone through so much, so now we're left rooting for it. 

I mean, if walls could talk. The Boston Globe gives us a quick rundown of its history:

"Massachusetts Historical Commission records state that the building was constructed between 1880 and 1890, but Truro assessing records say it was built in 1850. It was originally built as a boathouse for the Pamet Life Saving Station, which had a full time staff that patrolled the beach for wrecks. The building housed rescue boats and eventually converted to a residential cottage after the station closed in the 1940s, according to Massachusetts Historical Commission records."

Cape Cod and the rest of coastal Massachusetts are dense with historic old buildings and houses. There's even an entire HGTV show called "Houses With History" which follows the exploits of three preservationists rescuing houses on parts of Cape Cod and the Massachusetts South Shore.

While many of the historic places in New England are very safe from any coastal erosion, some are not.  A combination of sinking land and rising sea levels due to climate change regularly endanger coastal landmarks. Two Massachusetts light houses had to be moved back from the shore back in 1996, and Nauset Light Bathhouse had to be moved in 2000.

The Boston Globe said many areas on the Cape lose three feet of land per year due to coastal erosion and a single bad storm can erase more than 60 feet of land.  This house in Truro is certainly not the last that will have to be moved inland from the shore on Cape Cod. Or worse, fall into the Atlantic Ocean. 

Cape Cod will continue to ever so slowly shrink as sea levels continue rising and the coastline erodes. Not only is this difficult for the people who have to move buildings, but for the entire communities affected.

Towns and cities in Massachusetts live or die by property tax revenue. Less property, less property taxes.  Plus, the beachfront homes are worth the most, so those create the most tax revenue. Get rid of those homes, and you leave a big hole in the budget. 

These are problems that will gradually keep getting worse as the years and decades go by.  The house in Truro this winter is just one symptom of that.