RODANTHE, N.C. (AP) — Another home collapsed into the Atlantic Ocean along the North Carolina coast, the sixth to fall along the beaches of Cape Hatteras National Seashore over the past four years, according to U.S. National Park Service officials.
About a mile of beach along Ocean Drive in Rodanthe, Outer Banks, was closed after Tuesday’s collapse. National Seashore asked visitors to avoid beaches north of Sea Haven Drive in the southern part of Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge as dangerous debris could be on the beach and in the water as the cleanup continues.
National Seashore employees moved dozens of pickup trucks full of debris to a nearby parking lot on Tuesday, and on Wednesday the public was invited to help employees and a contractor hired by the owner of the home, which was unoccupied at the time of the crash.
The coast of North Carolina is almost entirely made up of straits low barrier islands that are increasingly vulnerable to storms and being swept away by the bay and the sea as the planet warms. As sea levels rise, these islands typically move toward the mainland, frustrating efforts to keep properties in place.
