The Rodanthe shoreline was a sight to see late Friday: An entire house collapsed off its stilts, floating away into the Atlantic Ocean and leaving behind a stairway to nowhere.
The unoccupied beach house on East Corbina Drive was battered by rough surf and swell from Hurricane Ernesto passing by far offshore, local officials said.
The Cape Hatteras National Seashore said debris from the collapse in Rodanthe spread about 11 miles north as of Sunday.
Dare County property records show the home is owned by two people in Pennsylvania.
Officials with the Cape Hatteras National Seashore say they'll coordinate further with the owners and rental property management companies once elevated surf conditions subside and they can assess the full damage.
In the meantime, officials are also warning Buxton residents of rough surf that has sent ocean waters washing under many homes and neighborhoods.
Seashore staff have seen evidence there of hazardous debris from broken beachfront homes as well as flooded home septic systems that can release raw sewage.
This weekend’s house collapse was the seventh in Rodanthe in the past four years – most of them within the last two and all unoccupied. Officials say many more homes are at risk.
The Outer Banks are made up of barrier islands that have always been vulnerable to erosion. But sea level rise and more intense storms driven by climate change are exacerbating the problem.
In the summer of 2022, the National Park Service ramped up efforts to combat the issue, including shutting down routes around threatened homes during storms and relaying concerns to property owners about structural stability of their houses and surrounding infrastructure.
Last year, the NPS used grant funding to buy two at-risk homes in Rodanthe on East Beacon Road, and tore them down in November.
The Park Service said the two houses could be the start of a larger program to purchase vulnerable properties – but they’d need a lot more funding to do so.
