2 more Outer Banks homes collapse into ocean

RODANTHE, N.C. — Two homes that had been on the waterfront are no longer after they collapsed into the ocean.

The two latest homes in the Outer Banks to succumb to Mother Nature collapsed the same day, just hours apart and were the third and fourth homes to collapse this year.

The first home, which was unoccupied, collapsed early Friday morning. The second collapsed after 9 p.m. on Friday, USA Today reported. That house was also unoccupied but was damaged when the first house came down.

The debris from the homes was carried several miles from where they once stood, The New York Times reported.

“Seashore law enforcement rangers arrived on scene and confirmed that the unoccupied, one-story house—the same house that sustained damages as a result of the first house collapse of the day—had collapsed and apparently washed out into the ocean before the bulk of it returned to the beach at the south end of G A Kohler Court,”

Over the past four years there have been nine house collapses, the National Park Service said. One house collapsed last month, possibly due to waves produced by Hurricane Ernesto despite being hundreds of miles from the Outer Banks, the Times reported.

Waves, wind, tides and rising sea levels have all contributed to coastal erosion and have threatened homes in Rodanthe and Buxton, North Carolina, the newspaper said. Sand dunes and dry sand once surrounded the homes that were built on stilts and that are now close to the water’s edge.

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