Another house has collapsed into the Atlantic Ocean along North Carolina's coast, the sixth to fall along the Cape Hatteras National Seashore's beaches in the past four years, according to U.S. National Park Service officials.
About one mile of the beach along Ocean Drive in Rodanthe on the Outer Banks was closed after Tuesday's collapse. The national seashore urged visitors to avoid beaches north of Sea Haven Drive into the southern portion of Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, since dangerous debris could be on the beach and in the water as the cleanup continued.
National seashore employees moved dozens of pickup truckloads 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 house, which was unoccupied when it fell.
North Carolina's coast is almost entirely made up of narrow, low-lying barrier islands that are increasingly vulnerable to storm surges and to being washed over from both the bay and the sea as the planet warms. As sea levels rise, these islands typically move toward the mainland, frustrating efforts to hold properties in place.
