NC Barrier Island Homeowners Who Bought w/i Last 3 Yrs Shocked That Sea Coming For Their Properties

[hatrack]

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Gusler is one of a dozen homeowners who signed affidavits last year, asking Dare County commissioners for permission to abandon the road that runs in front of their houses. The reason: They want every inch possible to move their homes away from the sea, and closer to nearby Highway 12. The commission agreed. The collective retreat, which will come at the homeowners’ expense, won’t arrive a moment too soon.

On one recent, sunny morning, Seagull Street was inundated by the swelling sea. Waves crashed along foundations and washed underneath homes with nicknames such as Coquina Reef and Sweet Home Carolina. Even before high tide, the incoming surf sent empty trash cans floating down the flooded street. A thick layer of sand covered most driveways. Along this imperiled street, as elsewhere in Rodanthe, some homeowners want local, state or federal authorities to intervene with beach nourishment projects or other measures. So far, officials have demurred, saying the cost-benefit analysis doesn’t work because of Rodanthe’s small tax base and the fact that the erosion is so relentless.

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Two doors down, Tom and Amy Urban are also preparing to move their home, and baffled it came to this so quickly. The Colorado couple bought what they envisioned as their retirement house in January 2022, when there appeared to be a healthy stretch of beach separating them from the sea. Now? Hardly any. Their back fence and pool were destroyed by a storm in September. Before that, a renter at the property lost a car that flooded during a storm.

Perhaps they should have studied sea level data or erosion rates, or spent more time investigating the history of Rodanthe’s shifting shoreline. But the feverish erosion has startled old-timers and newcomers alike.

Ed. - Emphasis added

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/interactive/2023/obx-rodanthe-erosion-rising-sea-levels/

[Phoenix61]

1. Is it "barrier" or "island" they don't understand?

When they find old sailing vessels buried under the sand it’s because there used to be water there. It’s like they think someone dug a big hole and buried a boat there. That coastline has always shifted. It’s what has made it so treacherous for boats as well as houses now.

[Effete Snob]

2. No fucks given

Bailing these people out would be utterly stupid and pointless.

The fact that barrier islands are dynamic, and rendered even more so by building hard structures on them, has not been some kind of secret and should come as no surprise to anyone.

It galls me to think that one federal dime would be spent trying to preserve the private property of foolish people.

[gab13by13]

3. 15 - 20 years ago we vacationed farther south, 3 or 4 different years.

and we had trouble on the road with the flooding there at high tide. I thought everyone was aware about that area.

Those houses, if I remember right, aren't that small to be able to be moved, or do they mean rebuild? Is that really a viable option?

[Farmer-Rick]

21. Yeah,

I thought the beachfront house rental on the barrier island was so expensive because it was constantly attacked by the sea and would soon go away.

And we rented that huge house back 20 years ago. I don't see how they can move those huge homes but maybe.

I wonder what they paid for their temporary beach front property and who appraised it?

[R Merm]

23. Also vacationed a few times on the same island, always think of it as a way of life that will not be

sustainable much longer, the roads are constantly flooding and being covered over with sand. Beautiful place to be and good fishing.

[R Merm]

4. But the NC GOP legislature passed a law years ago preventing sea level rise

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/12/north-carolina-didnt-like-science-on-sea-levels-so-passed-a-law-against-it

[Ferrets are Cool]

8. ...

This made me LOL

[DBoon]

29. So they made it illegal for the sea to rise?

[Lonestarblue]

5. Have these people been living in a cave for the last 20 years?

Predictions for coastal sea flooding due to climate warming have been in the news for many years. Anyone who buys beachfront property should know that. No state or federal bailouts should be allowed for people who refuse to believe that climate warming is real or who just figure that taxpayer money will bail then out when something happens.

[ancianita]

16. Yep.

The want/believe cave. In it, predictions that don't fit their wants are mostly wrong. Besides, the GOP legislature backed them up!

[AverageOldGuy]

6. I'm confused

The way I understand it, "sea level rise" is tied directly to "global warming", which is a hoax.

Right?

So why is a hoax causing this property loss? Or maybe they are "crisis actors" paid by George Soros and it's all a movie set . . . paid for by George Soros???

[Javaman]

20. it's staged on the set location that they shot the moon landings on ;) LOL nt

[3Hotdogs]

7. N.Y.C. - Manhattan. Probably 15% of it is landfilled. Hence the damage from Hurricane Sandy.

Port Elizabeth, N.J. --- Is a landfilled, former garbage dump. When I worked on the sanitation (garbage) department, we, along with other towns, dumped there. That was in the '60's. It stopped when the incinerators were built.

Now, it's Ikea and other fine shopping destinations.



Morris County, N.J. --- One of the finest sections with big McMansions, 4 car garage big. was also a landfill.

[Donkees]

32. Maybe more, even the FDR Drive was landfill from England, arriving as ballast ...

In addition, the hills of Manhattan were leveled and used as landfill, subway excavations, Grand Central excavations, etc. became landfill and the original World Trade Center was also built on landfill. Etc, etc.

With the construction of Franklin Delano Roosevelt Drive, set atop landfill comprising rubble from London houses destroyed during the German Blitzkrieg, commuters moved more easily from Queens, Brooklyn, and the Bronx to the heart of Manhattan.

https://www.nycgovparks.org/about/history/historical-signs/listings?id=12179

[LiberalFighter]

9. I don't get why people move to places like that. Just plain stupid.

[Butterflylady]

11. Hey their republicans, that explains it all.

[The Jungle 1]

10. We have been warned

26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” Matthew 7:24-27

[dembotoz]

12. maybe instead of homes on foundations they should just allow travel trailers

water gets closer just hitch it up and tow it a bit.
Think of all the money Fema would save.
Hurricane coming? Just pack up the trailer and move out of harms way

[getagrip_already]

14. almost none of them are on foundations.. fwiw...

Building codes for the ast few decades mandate that new houses be built on stilts, with no walled in first floor. Added tot hat, there has been a mcmansion boom where plots get bought, the old homes razed, and new ones built.

It avoids a temporary washout from pushing entire houses into the roadway.

It has its limits though. Once the footings get exposed, the whole thing falls face first into the sea. Once a home is washed out, or the waterline is within a set distance, the homes can not be repaired or rebuilt. They can ony be removed.

Most communities won't allow a mobile home on the beach. The rich folk don't like the look.

A lot of the better healed towns have started a program of "beach nourishment". It's a massive operation where they suck up sand off the ocean floor and bring it up on the beach. It raises the height of the beach and leaves people wth the illusion homes are safe. They aren't; it just looks pretty.

[Farmer-Rick]

24. Yeah, I was wondering why thy did that

The water line has moved up and no amount of sand thrown on a beach is going to stop the water.

[getagrip_already]

26. follow the money.....

The outer banks gets a yuuuge amount of tourist dollars every year and soft, wide, beaches and deceptive tranquiliy are bringing in those bucks.

Can't have people looking out at a thin sliver of beach and thinking "this isn't right".

Multi-million dollar homes are still being built ocean front. Those people don't care the homes can get washed out. It isn't their home - just a vacation spot they spend a couple/few weeks a year at. Insurance will cover the house, and they can afford the loss.

It's like buying a million dollar car and crashing it. So what?

[rpannier]

13. Thoughts and Something

[Botany]

15. President Joe are you sure you want to go ahead w/that Alaska project?

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217722472

[flying_wahini]

17. Some people will believe anything.

Like the neighborhood in Arizona that couldn’t get city water and they bought houses there anyway.

Now they have to truck in water. Boo Hoo.

[lonely bird]

18. We don't want big gubmint

Wait a minute, yes, we do.

[mgardener]

19. How do they even get home owners insurance?

And if they are, how do they afford it?

[getagrip_already]

27. federal insurance programs....

Even drunk drivers can get insurance.

The gubberment mandates insurance companies must provide it if they do other business in the state. Not cheap, but neither are multi-million dollar homes.

[Marthe48]

22. Not a surprise

We rented a nice house in South Nags Head a couple of times. It was 2nd row and right on the beach, which wasn't far away, there was a row of houses damaged in in 2009. In 2015, Nags Head agreed to buy the damaged houses for 1.5 million dollars. It is an ongoing story: https://www.outerbanksvoice.com/2015/03/22/seagull-drive-legal-saga-finally-ends-with-a-1-5-million-deal/#:~:text=Five%20years%20after%20the%20town,said%20in%20a%20statement%20Friday.

I read a couple of books about the geology of The Outer Banks. They shift position endlessly. Right now, the Eastern side used to be the western side. There is a forest of trees buried in the sand on the n.e. shore and other clues about the restless nature of OBX. In spite of their ceaseless battle with the ocean, the islands are fragile and I doubt if anything humans build will last. I'm glad we got to spend time there. Only Bermuda is prettier

[Fla Dem]

25. The same thing is happening along the north FLorida coast line.

This is in St Johns County just south of Jacksonville. Granted these homes are not on flat land to the ocean, there is a cliff, but the cliff of sand is being eaten away with every strong storm. Yet people continue to tear down old beach houses and build new ones.

https://www.google.com/maps/@29.9876895,-81.3117864,159a,35y,261.83h,56.81t/data=!3m1!1e3

Just south in Flagler County, Hurricane Nicole breached the dunes and washed out parts of Rte A1A.

[BWdem4life]

28. ...

[hatrack]

30. Update - another house just fell into the ocean yesterday (3/13/23)

The sea has claimed yet another oceanfront home in Rodanthe, N.C., a small Outer Banks community where severe erosion has caused numerous beachfront homeowners to retreat before they face a similar fate. A home located at 23228 East Point Drive collapsed among the pounding surf along the Cape Hatteras National Seashore around noon on Monday, officials said. The incident marks the fourth house collapse since early last year in a community that is grappling with some of the most rapid rates of erosion and sea level rise on the East Coast.

Noah Gillam, planning director for Dare County, said officials from the county and from the National Park Service, which overseas the seashore, had communicated with the owners of the 3-bedroom, 2-bath house. He said the power was cut last May, when officials deemed it unsafe for occupancy.

“The owner will be responsible for the clean up of their property, and the debris on the park service property,” Gillam said in an email. “We are patrolling the surrounding areas and will likely be decertifying other structures for occupancy due to damaged septic [tanks] and structural damage.”

Separately, the National Park Service said in a statement that while the bulk of the debris from the collapsed home had so far remained near the site, “visitors should use caution when participating in recreational activities on the beach and in the ocean” near the home.

EDIT

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/03/13/rondanthe-house-collapse/

[CoopersDad]

31. Here in the California, a one-time-only rebuild requirement is being considered.

I'm 100 feet fee from homes that were severely damaged in January by storms, most of them are vacation rentals, big bucks owners.

Local races for Supervisors have the homeowners reaching deep into their bank accounts.