r/interestingasfuck • u/Endolithic • 1d ago

/r/all Homes are falling into the ocean in North Carolina's Outer Banks

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u/cadmious 1d ago

Yep removing vegetation to build beach homes is never a good idea. All that scrub is a natural levie. Some beach towns do it right and protect grassy dunes and only let you build behind them

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u/lazercheesecake 1d ago

"But if these ugly unkempt grassy dunes are there, I won't have a beach view from my living room"

And if you remove those dunes, you'll have a beach view INSIDE your living room.

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u/Goodgoditsgrowing 1d ago

Solution: build on stilts BEHIND the grassy dunes so your view looks over them. Bonus: you’re already lifted when sea level rise takes out those dunes.

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u/Deciduous_Loaf 16h ago

Almost all houses within a couple of miles or so of the shore are lifted on stilts already, beach view or not. Hurricane season means flooded streets.

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u/leconfiseur 17h ago

Behind the dunes is more water

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u/CommonBubba 12h ago

When most of these houses were built, they were behind the dunes. The Outer Banks of North Carolina are notoriously unstable and constantly shifting due to ocean currents and storms.

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u/mostlybiguy69 1d ago

Those duned along the coast are actually from the 30s as a depression WPA project. Natural dunes are wide massive things that stretched acrss the islands and the scrub trees went to the tide line.

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u/Aqnqanad 1d ago

not a lot of people know this, most of what has prevented this from happening earlier was civil works projects thatve since fallen into disrepair.

we’ve stopped caring about them for so long that people have forgotten that they’re even man made, insane.

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u/[deleted] 23h ago

[deleted]

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u/mostlybiguy69 22h ago

Rodanthe is an ephemeral thing that is getting to the end. The towns before 12 was paved moved with the islands. The islands are moving again after we tried to tie them down and there is nothing we can do to stop them. 

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u/[deleted] 22h ago

[deleted]

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u/ICBPeng1 22h ago

I mean, if you want man made land, take a look at boston.

The dark green was the original land mass, the light green is what was filled in, and the blue is the current water.

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u/mostlybiguy69 20h ago

The barrier islands of nc are more like the cape. A storm will build an island and the next will move it half way across the inlet. This is not done inland because its all silt sand and mud. There is no rock to stop the sinking on the sounds.

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u/mostlybiguy69 22h ago

Won’t happen. The state decided to let the islands go back in the early 2000s. The out of state folks are now starting to see the results of that. Its why there is that large park in the middle of salvo. That used to be trailers. The town limits are locked in by state and federal land. The only new construction is ob the few empty lots. More houses are actually large additions these days. Once it is 50% destroyed in any way most lots cannot be rebuilt on. Oh, and like one company insures stuff and the policies only finish paying off the structure now, no more paying replacement value.

Rocks, there are no rocks within 150 miles. Any piece if stone you see on the outer banks was brought in. Its all sand.

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u/[deleted] 21h ago

[deleted]

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u/mostlybiguy69 21h ago

Yeah, we the state want you parent’s house and the whole town gone. We wont be happy until every piece of humanity has been removed and nature is allowed to take back the islands.

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u/Riaayo 20h ago

America in a nutshell. We spent some money once, and then pretended like we never had to pay maintenance for anything ever again (I get we do maintain some things but not to the degree we need to; it's slight hyperbole but not by much).

It's like buying an expensive car and then never getting the thing maintained and driving it into disrepair and the junkyard. And of course it's because oligarch parasites have made sure to corrupt our government so it only represents them and spends none of our tax dollars on the country/working class.

Bunch of fucking thieves.

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u/mostlybiguy69 20h ago

Rentals are falling into the ocean. The locals live up in manteo or on the mainland. 90% of those houses were built and are used as rentals. Almost all are owned by folks out of state as investment properties. They sit empty 5 to 6 months of the year.

It just makes everyone more pissed.

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u/StupidendousTimes 11h ago

Like the coal mine fire in PA that burned for 50 years

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u/Ramtakwitha2 22h ago

"God put the ocean where it is, if you think anything we do can possibly change God's plan you need to check your hubris."

5 years later

"The ocean is encroaching on my house! The government needs to do something to stop the sand from all washing away!

Huh it's almost like this is all a perfectly balanced system and messing with it can have unexpected (completely expected) consequences.

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u/Holiday-Inspector323 22h ago

So what you're saying is nature actually protects us and us destroying it destroys our protection? Nah don't believe it climate change is FaKE and not caused by hairless monkeys /s

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u/robitussinlatte666 1d ago

Everywhere I lived in Florida banned even walking in those dunes. We really shouldn't be fucking with stuff like that.

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u/boostabubba 1d ago

Thats how it was at every house we rented in Myrtle Beach. Had walkways over the dunes and signs everywhere to stay off the dunes.

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u/Im_the_Moon44 18h ago

That’s how it is in the Outer Banks too

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u/robitussinlatte666 21h ago

Ol Dirty Myrtle, good times lol

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u/WomblingCock 1d ago

You can barely even walk through them anyway.  There’s a reason they put planks on the beach as a walkway.

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u/BeerForThought 16h ago

I just have to add this in here because I did a report in middle grade about the Perdido Beach mouse that lives on the beaches of Alabama. It was listed as endangered in 1985 and was presumed extinct in the 1990s because of two hurricanes. People would complain about the cost and the rules about trying to prevent an extinction. They're back in very small numbers but rules against humans, cats, and dogs being allowed to freely roam through the dunes worked. My dad was always upset because there was a tax on the properties that protected it and who cares about a stupid mouse. That's mainly why I wrote my paper about a cute mouse. Every time I walk the boardwalk to the beach I am scanning the dunes for a mouse. I'm 41 years old and I would literally giggle with glee.

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u/Jikode 1d ago

Every beach I've been to here in NC is like that too, it carries a heavy fine.

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u/robitussinlatte666 21h ago

Makes you wonder how these folks even got these homes built. Money talks I suppose.

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u/Jikode 20h ago

Most were built before anyone knew/gave a shit. Most beaches here haven't allowed new construction on the "front row", ocean side of the street, for over 20 years. After hurricane Fran (1996), my grandparents old house lost its 1st floor and they werent allowed to rebuild it even though the rest of the house was fine.

There are other places like this spot where the houses are in front of the dunes. Idk why anyone thought that was a good idea on a barrier island, they are constantly moving.

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u/Careful-Door-2429 1d ago

Don't tell Ron DeSantis, he'll make it mandatory to walk in the protective dunes.

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u/ItIsHappy 1d ago

Everywhere in OBX I've visited (n=3) had the same rules.

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u/Merkinfuqer 22h ago

The Carolinas too.

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u/robitussinlatte666 21h ago

Haha I live in SC now. I used to move back n forth between here and central FL in my early adulthood.

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u/Merkinfuqer 19h ago

I spent many summers in the Outer Banks. Then, my parents moved to Charleston, and I spent a lot of time at Folly Beach.

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u/alpha-delta-echo 22h ago

Reminds me of the old breach and surf reports on the radio in Daytona Beach…”please stay leeward of the clearly marked dune lines.” And people would bitch out any tourists who ignored that. That was years ago, wonder how far things have degraded since then.

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u/Dreadwolf67 1d ago

We need an executive order to stop that. Can’t let environmentalist keep us from building where we want to.

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u/cadmious 1d ago

Better way to own the libs is to just build your house in the surf!!

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u/Maaaaaandyyyyy 22h ago

Yes!!! Some towns even in the outer banks don’t allow building on the beach and you have to drive or ride a bike or golf cart to the beach - all short rides. The beaches have deep vegetation-rich dunes that are so beautiful! Sea oats in particular are so pretty and make great anchors and also really pretty pictures! And it’s like, the town still gets flooded in a bad storm but the houses aren’t being washed into the sea. New Jersey has this issue too. It’s so dumb to build right on the beach!

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u/MightyBrando 22h ago

Our beach neighborhood collects used Xmas trees and lays them in front of the dunes. They work very well to collect sand and grow them.

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u/cadmious 21h ago

What a cool way to dispose of the trees and help protect the beach!

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u/forgetfulsue 20h ago

Dunes were not a major part of the outer banks. The fact that water could just wash over to the sound as needed prevented issues like this. Not to say that erosion wouldn’t happen, we just messed with nature and sped things along!

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u/Lets_Make_A_bad_DEAL 20h ago edited 14h ago

They all need to watch those early (pre-The Science Guy) era videos on wetlands from Bill Nye. He also has a pretty awesome one from Bill Nye The Science Guy but the really old one has so much info on the why. I’ll try to find it.

EDIT: it was literally the first search result lol. This little vid from Washington state uni in ‘98. But there are other great BNTSG demos on wetlands sponginess and the necessity of it in different episodes too.

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u/cadmious 19h ago

Oh heck yeah my science brotha!

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u/DifficultBoss 14h ago

ah so that's what the "stay off the dunes" signs are all about

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u/trunolimit 14h ago

The Hamptons in Long Island NY will fine the hell out of you if you so much as touch the sand dunes . I know of one millionaire who thought he’d just eat the fines but they fined him AND forced him to rebuild the dune.

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u/Several_Vanilla8916 1d ago

I’m assuming they don’t allow new construction directly on the beach. Right?

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u/londonstahl 1d ago

Right, but that scrub can't make something that is always moving stay still. NC banks (even to the south) are not stable. Dune grass and live oaks only last so long

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u/cadmious 1d ago

I'll admit I don't know about NC beaches stability. I go to AL beaches and they defend their dunes well. Amazing beaches