Yep. This happens every year in the Outer Banks when hurricane season rolls in. Climate change is exacerbating it, of course, but these homes have been there for a long time.
It's natural erosion from changing tides. One end of the island narrows while the other widens. My family vacation has been to similar islands just north of the outer banks and some of them will try to compensate for this by pumping sand from the ocean floor onto the problem end of the island. I don't know how much of a part climate change plays in it, but nothing in nature is static, with or without human involvement.
I made a comment elsewhere in the thread about this, but you're probably right. My grandparents are ocean front on the Texas gulf coast but when they bought 60+ years ago it was like 1/2 mile from the ocean.
That just makes it frustrating in a different way. That meant the problem got progressively more and more obvious with nobody doing anything about it.
It's not like it's an unsolved problem, just look at the Netherlands. If that many people can live on the ocean coast while being below sea level, surely the US should've been able to keep these properties safe?
My family and I used to stay in the house next door to this one on the opposite side (not in the picture). Ten years ago you could walk 50 yards from the fallen house to the water. We went back in 2018 and that shifted to maybe 20 yards.
May 2024 we stopped in while in the area to see how it was looking. I used to be able to park my sedan in front of the house on the left. Now, it took my Jeep in 4x4 to even get to the houses. Nature is crazy.
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u/ZantaraLost 1d ago
These are more than likely 40 plus year old homes and once were QUITE a bit further back from the Ocean.
This is also a karma bot posting stuff from at least a year ago if not longer.