‘Nothing is done’: Buxton residents not surprised after home collapses on NC coast
By Kirstyn Clark
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BUXTON, North Carolina (WRAL) — Cape Hatteras National Seashore is asking people to avoid the beach and stay out of the water in Buxton after a home collapsed into the water.
On Tuesday, officials said a home on Tower Circle Road had collapsed into the Atlantic. A pre-existing beach safety closure from the north end of Buxton to around off-road vehicle ramp 43 may need to be expanded depending on the extent of the debris, according to authorities.
Area leaders said this house is the 12th to collapse in the past five years in the Rodanthe and Buxton area.
“There are about 40 of them that are sitting right there in the shore break. And I would say out of those, there’s probably about 4 or 5 that look like they’re kinda ready to go,” said Donny Bowers, a Buxton native who was on the beach just moments after the home collapsed.
“Nothing is done until it’s on the verge of catastrophic and then the only thing anyone can do is abandon,” he continued.
WRAL News previously reported about how many sea level rise experts believe there are areas of barrier islands that are not ideal for development.
Rodanthe has become the focal point in the national conversation about the impacts of climate change on sea level rise in coastal areas.
When homes fall, they leave behind dangerous debris that can scatter for miles along the shoreline. A routine Reide Corbett said he knows all too well.
“These homes are extremely vulnerable,” said Corbett, Executive Director of the Coastal Studies Institute at ECU. “The process that’s leading to these challenges isn’t going away.”
He said beach nourishment is a temporary and expensive fix that will only buy time before the inevitable.
“There is a discussion about hardened shorelines, jetties. These are not solutions, and they are certainly not solutions for North Carolina,” he said. “I want to work with these homeowners and Dare County as a whole to find solutions. It’s not going to be easy, but we need to engage in these conversations.”
Outer Banks visitors are also asked to avoid the north end of Rodanthe due to threatened oceanfront structures.
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