The National Park Service has confirmed that another home collapsed late Tuesday night on Hatteras Island in Buxton at the end of Tower Circle Road, after offshore Hurricanes Imelda and Humberto churned up the surf along the North Carolina Coast.
Cape Hatteras National Seashore officials said the beach in the Buxton area is dangerous, and remains closed because of hazardous debris, following the collapses of six homes in Buxton in the past two days.
Three houses on Cottage Avenue and two on Tower Circle Road fell into the Atlantic Tuesday afternoon, and, according to the seashore’s website, a third on Tower Circle Road tumbled into the water sometime overnight.
Jenni Koontz owns Epic Shutter Photography in the Outer Banks, and has documented many of the recent house collapses in recent years. She also surfs and spends a lot of time at the beaches in Buxton.
She said, "I feel like it's not real. Like I haven't registered that it's actually happening, even though I'm here. It's really devastating.”
The first 11 of the 18 homes in the Outer Banks that have been claimed by the sea in recent years fell on the beaches in Rodanthe between May 2020 and November of last year. In mid-September, as Hurricane Erin also passed offshore of the North Carolina Coast, the first home on Tower Drive in Buxton collapsed.
Koontz said the beach landscape has changed dramatically in just the past few weeks, and, "The rapid rate of erosion here since Hurricane Erin has been overwhelmingly unbelievable. Like, truly, I can't believe this is what it looks like after the summer here. It didn't look like this, and it happened so quickly since Hurricane Erin.”
Kontz spoke with one of the people that lost their home this week, a retiree living on the beach in Buxton.
“I was just talking to one of the homeowners whose house got hit by two of the homes that fell yesterday, and he was walking around, kind of devastated,” she said, “And he said, ‘We lost another one last night.” He was the first one I talked to when I got here, and he's been relocated to a friend's house, a couple of houses back here from the oceanfront. Him and his wife, they retired here, so they're here full time. It's not a rental house for them, it's their life cottage, you know. I saw him during Hurricane Erin and he was walking around with a bucket and gloves on and boots, and I said, “What are you doing? Are you picking up trash?’ Because there was so much debris then, and he's like, ‘I'm finding my stuff.’”
Koontz’s photos and videos of the aftermath of Outer Banks house collapses have been shared not just on her Facebook page, but by national news outlets and others. She said another frustration is the comments on her social media posts by people who don’t understand the challenges of barrier island life, and aren’t aware that these houses were initially build far from the water’s edge.
“It's really sad that people, with technology and Google and ChatGPT nowadays, that people can't take it upon themselves. And you don't even have to type it anymore, you just talk into your phone. I mean, how simple is it to say, ‘Buxton, North Carolina, what's going on here, why are these houses falling in?’” Koontz said, “And you know what? You get all the answers you pretty much need to know.”
Still, she thinks any beachfront structure at risk of collapse should be removed before it falls into the Atlantic. “These houses have been here for a long time. And I do think that now they should be torn down. I think ethically, they should not be falling in the ocean, all the debris on the beach and in the ocean,” Koontz said, “I understand it's a financial loss for these homeowners, but it's not good. They should not be falling in like this, whether the insurance pays out when they fall in or not. This should not be the reality in any beach town.”
On Tuesday, Koontz learned first-hand how dangerous the debris from a fallen building in the surf zone can be. She said, “I was walking to take some pictures of the first house that fell and got my drone up ... and I was like in a danger zone and I knew it and I was trying to get out of there, but there's really nowhere to go. And a big wave came and pushed a piling and literally clipped the side of my foot and it could have taken me out. It could have hurt my leg. Like, and that was a reality check for me. Like, ‘Oh, you need to get out of the tide.’ So there's no way to clean this up right now, you know, safely. There is no way to clean this up right now safely.”
And the photographer said the plight of the owners of the homes – and the fate of the beach she loves -- weigh heavily on her.
“The overwhelming feeling of what tomorrow's going to bring keeps me up at night; I literally got no sleep, and I don't know how I'm going to run all day today, but I'm going to try,” Koontz sais, “But it's not even my house. It's where I live. You know, these aren't my homes that are falling in, but it's where I live. And it's truly ... I just can't even process it. I really can't process what I'm seeing right now.”
Additional home collapses are possible in Buxton and Rodanthe Wednesday afternoon at high tide, with additional coastal flooding expected.
Public Radio East reached out to officials at Cape Hatteras National Seashore, and was told they are not available for interviews at this time. When asked via email whether the federal government shutdown would impact debris removal, NPS Public Affairs Specialist Mike Barber replied, “Seashore staff will contribute to cleanup efforts following improved weather conditions. We are expecting challenging conditions along the coast for the remainder of today.”
