NORFOLK, Va. — A slow-motion catastrophe is playing out in the coastal North Carolina village of Rodanthe, where 10 houses have fallen into the Atlantic since 2020. Three were lost since last week.
The most recent collapse was Tuesday afternoon, when the wooden pilings of a home nicknamed “Front Row Seats” buckled in the surf. The structure bumped against another house before it bobbed in the waves, prompting now familiar warnings about splintered wood and nail-riddled debris.
The destruction was decades in the making as beach erosion and climate change slowly edged the Atlantic closer to homes in the somewhat out-of-the way vacation spot. The threat is more insidious than a hurricane, while the possible solutions won’t be easy or cheap, either in Rodanthe or other parts of the U.S.
CORRECTION Rodanthe Collapsing Homes
This photo shows a house several hours before it collapsed into the ocean Tuesday in Rodanthe, N.C.
Barrier islands
Rodanthe is a village of about 200 people on the Outer Banks, a strip of narrow barrier islands that protrude into the Atlantic like a flexed arm.