Beach erosion threatens homes in North Carolina's Outer Banks

AccuWeather

Danny Couch of the Dare County Board of Commissioners in North Carolina says four homes are in imminent danger with as many as 10 homes in danger in a 12-month span in the area due to erosion.

Transcript

00:00Good morning, thank you for being with us, Danny.

00:03Good morning. Alright, so we saw the home in

00:06Rodanthe crumble into the ocean last week.

00:08Can you tell us how many other homes

00:11may be in danger of a collapse?

00:13There are four in imminent danger and

00:15overtime given a 12 month scenario here,

00:18there could be as many as 10.

00:21And I'll tell you that.

00:25Uh, where Deer County leadership

00:27we're getting a little wary of the

00:30optics with these houses collapsing

00:32into the surf. It's just not a good

00:34look for a national seashore. Yeah,

00:36for sure. Can any of these homes be

00:39saved or moved and then if a home

00:41is tagged as a safety issue,

00:43do they get abandoned?

00:44How does their county enforce that?

00:48They can be moved.

00:49One of the complications or

00:51challenges I should say is the

00:53fact that this being a national

00:54park, the federal government

00:56owns about 85% of Cape Hatteras,

00:58so we're kind of limited in where

01:00these houses can be moved.

01:02You know, back in the day with

01:05these smaller structures,

01:06there were a lot more easily moved,

01:09but when you get up to something,

01:1168 bedrooms, even more,

01:13that's an expensive proposition

01:14to relocate those.

01:15But we're trying to do some buyouts

01:18in partnership with the federal government.

01:21We're also trying to do some

01:23buyouts in partnership with the

01:25federal government. We're also

01:27trying to take a look at things from

01:30being more proactive on septic discharge.

01:33The physical debris that's up and down

01:35the beach is yes, that's that's not good,

01:38but also the septic discharge

01:40is concerning as well.

01:42That's just public safety.

01:43How is erosion and the potential

01:46for more powerful hurricanes

01:47impacting Dares County safety planning?

01:51Oh, as you know, we're a pretty

01:54high strike probability here.

01:56We're right behind Florida,

01:58but we're trying to just make people

02:01aware of that these homes when you

02:04buy a home that's in the in a hazard

02:07area like that you need to know

02:10what your options are and so it's

02:13mostly education just trying to

02:15keep people educated.

02:16It's a great place to visit.

02:19It's a great place to invest in,

02:21but at the same time have your eyes open.

02:24And we know that beach nourishment

02:25efforts are not scheduled.

02:27Can you tell us why that is?

02:29Man, it's expensive.

02:30That's a that as you know,

02:33that's a very high.

02:35I mean, the erosion there is accelerated,

02:38so even though we've done a good job

02:41maintaining a fund balance to handle

02:43beach nourishment throughout the

02:45length of Dare County,

02:46that is quite a challenge in Rodanthe.

02:48That's a $40 million startup.

02:51And being a small village there,

02:54you have to have some buy in skin in the

02:57game sort of so to speak from the

03:00homeowners there and it's really expensive.

03:03But project in Nags Head,

03:06even a project further South in Avon

03:08and in Buxton where the Cape

03:10Outers Lighthouse is that was around

03:13topping out at around 20 million.

03:15But Rodanthe because of the challenges there,

03:18it's one of the highest erosion

03:19rates on the East Coast.

03:21That's a lot of money at beach.

03:23Beach nourishment is something in the toolbox.

03:26But man, it's expensive.

03:28Danny couch with the Dare County

03:30Board of Commissioners.

03:31Incredibly knowledgeable on this topic.

03:33We really appreciate you

03:34joining us this morning.

03:36I appreciate y'all.

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