CAPE HATTERAS, N.C. (WAVY) — Another house collapsed on the Outer Banks Tuesday at 46227 Tower Circle Road in Buxton, marking the 12th home that has collapsed on Seashore beaches in the past five years.
“The majority of those houses were in Rodanthe that collapsed,” said resident Don Bowers. “This is the first house that’s collapsed in Buxton since maybe [1993] during Hurricane Emily. I’ve been watching this for several years, and it’s never easy because it is somebody’s house.”
The home was unoccupied at the time of collapse. The Cape Hatteras National Seashore is urging visitors to stay away from the beach and out of the water while the debris is being cleaned up. Visitors should also avoid the north end of Rodanthe due to threatened oceanfront structures.
“We’ve had several houses damaged over the years, lots of erosion, some beach replenishment here and there,” Bowers said. “This house in particular was built in [1976], I believe. A lot of these houses were built in the [1960s and 1970s]. This beach has really taken some hits over the last several years.”
Since the collapse, many residents have taken to social media, expressing their concerns over the future of beachfront homes like this one.
“There’s not gonna be any quick Band-Aid or solution to just hold it back right now,” Bowers said. “These houses are at the mercy of the rest of our hurricane season. The only solution that kinda works is the jetties. Ideally, we’d like to see as many as they wanna put in. I think jetties would be the solution. You just have to strategically place them in the right places.”
For more information on the oceanfront structures visit the link here.