In the community of Rodanthe on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, residents witnessed on Friday an event that was not new and is unfortunately becoming more frequent: A house on the picturesque shoreline collapsed into the ocean.
Weather experts said that crashing waves produced by Hurricane Ernesto hundreds of miles away, combined with especially high tides, appeared to be the cause, though local officials also said that the house was at risk of collapsing before the storm. For those on the Outer Banks, the destruction was one more stark reminder of the larger force at play — climate change, which is making storms more intense and sea levels higher, accelerating the erosion of beach fronts.
Rodanthe, home to about 200 people, has lost seven homes to the ocean in the past four years. The house that was destroyed on Friday was unoccupied at the time of the collapse. There have been no reports of injuries from any of the seven collapses, according to the National Park Service.
Officials warned that many more homes are at risk for damage or collapse in the coming days as Hurricane Ernesto pummels the East Coast from afar, even as it follows a path that is not expected to hit the mainland United States. Some other homes near Rodanthe have already appeared to sustain damage.
Forecasters predict that the storm could bring dangerous rip currents and a high surf along the East Coast through the weekend. The risks could persist in the Outer Banks through early next week, they said.
In North Carolina, climate change has caused the sea level to rise by about half a foot since 2000, and the level could rise by about another foot by 2050, said William Sweet, an oceanographer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
He added that the amount of sea-level rise in North Carolina is comparable to other nearby states. But the Outer Banks, a low-lying barrier island and a popular vacation destination, is particularly vulnerable to rising waters because it faces rougher waters and is built on shifting sand, Mr. Sweet said.
Rodanthe, located on Hatteras Island, is home to many oceanfront properties with elevated houses sitting on pilings that were once surrounded by dunes and dry sand. Now, that land is often partially or fully covered by water, which erodes the sand around the pilings that support the homes, creating the risk of a collapse.
That was the case with the home on Friday, officials said.
“The pilings were washed out from under it,” said Robert Outten, the manager of Dare County, which includes Rodanthe, describing a video he had seen of the collapse. “The house just sat down in the surf and floated off.”
Officials said that residents facing the threat of home collapse have limited — and largely unappealing — options.
They can move their home to drier ground, a costly and logistically complicated process that is not always feasible. They can pay to have their home demolished. Or, they can wait until the home collapses and then seek reimbursement through insurance, if covered.
The Cape Hatteras National Seashore, a 70-mile stretch of shoreline that includes the beach in front of Rodanthe, recently began a pilot program where it purchased and demolished two threatened oceanfront properties, according to David Hallac, superintendent of the national parks in eastern North Carolina. Those homes were the only ones in the program, and the owners were paid fair market value, he said. Many other homeowners were interested in participating, but there were not enough funds to expand the program, Mr. Hallac said.
Along with endangering homeowners, a collapsed house can also pose significant risks to both beachgoers and the local ecosystem, according to Mr. Hallac.
He said debris from a collapsed structure can spread for miles, especially when there are powerful waves, which can break homes into tens of thousands of pieces. Following Friday’s collapse, the National Park Service has urged visitors to avoid the beaches and stay out of the water in Rodanthe.
At the county level, officials in some communities have tried to replenish the sand along the beach. However, Mr. Outten said that such a process has not yet been carried out in Rodanthe because of funding constraints, estimating that it could cost tens of millions of dollars.
“The fact that a house fell isn’t surprising to anyone,” he said. “Our problem is that we don’t have any easy solutions for it.”
