See the Stunning Moment a NC Beach Home Collapses and Is Whisked Out to Sea

This pretty beach house practically stumbles and totters as it lurches into the sea. The waves soon smash against it, and it seems to be floating from the beach. As the video at the bottom of this page shows, Mother Nature has no respect for human construction!

Watch the Shocking Footage Below

Homes Collapse Into the Atlantic

 Press reports associated with this incident explain that two beach houses had actually collapsed on that stretch of the North Carolina coast. The houses were part of the Outer Banks community of Rodanthe and were unoccupied at the time so, thankfully, no one was hurt.

However, this is not an isolated incident and the ongoing situation is so serious that the National Parks Service has hosted a public meeting to keep residents informed. Several more homes in the area have been declared unsafe and are on the verge of collapse. Both the National Park Service and Dare County are encouraging owners of affected housing to organize a planned removal of the homes before they actually fall into the sea.

What Causes Houses to Fall Into the Sea?

The issues that we see in this clip are caused by coastal erosion. According to the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, there are many risks associated with building a home on the oceanfront. Some homes are destroyed by dramatic storms but others are endangered by sand erosion. Erosion can happen faster in some areas such as those near inlets and capes. Beaches can lose several feet of sand a year.

The authorities have been tracking long-term average erosion rates since 1979 using aerial photography, and now, computer programs. They are able to calculate erosion rates at each location. However, these are not cast-iron predictions.

There are rules that require that new oceanfront buildings are set back from the sea. They use an ‘erosion setback’ which is a line measured from the ‘first line of stable, natural vegetation, behind which you will be required to build your house or other building.’ Unfortunately, even houses built complying with the rules are not guaranteed to be completely safe. Nature is notoriously unpredictable!

The photo featured at the top of this post is © MICHAEL HUBEL/Shutterstock.com