Beach erosion threatens homes in North Carolina's Outer Banks

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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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