Having a property right on the water has its perks — a cool sea breeze, and the sounds of waves crashing.
But it also comes with the risk that water could cause damage to the structure.
A home in the Outer Banks of North Carolina is no more after the ocean reclaimed the land it once sat upon.
The Cape Hatteras National Seashore shared a video of the unoccupied house collapsing into the ocean. It was actually the second one to be destroyed on Tuesday.
Cape Hatteras National Seashore (Seashore) has confirmed that an unoccupied house at 24265 Ocean Drive, Rodanthe, N.C. collapsed this afternoon. This is the second unoccupied house collapse of the day at the Seashore. Read more: https://t.co/ZPUiklQAWA pic.twitter.com/OMoPNCpbzk
— Cape Hatteras National Seashore (@CapeHatterasNPS) May 10, 2022
You can see the exact moment when the stilts the house sat upon were washed away and the building floats away, battered by waves after it comes to a stop.
The collapse was not fully unexpected after a home — also unoccupied — had been destroyed by the water earlier in the day, and National Park Service officials expected more to collapse, according to a news release.
Officials closed the beach near Ocean Drive to protect the public from hazards left behind from the first home that had collapsed on Tuesday, park officials said.
A home had been washed away on Feb. 9 also. Since that incident, the Park Service had been reaching out to homeowners on Ocean Drive to warn them of the potential danger of losing their residences.
“Unfortunately, there may be more houses that collapse onto Seashore beaches in the near future,” David Hallac, superintendent, National Parks of Eastern North Carolina, said in a news release. “We proactively reached out to homeowners along Ocean Drive in Rodanthe after the first house collapse and recommended that actions be taken to prevent collapse and impacts to Cape Hatteras National Seashore.”
The Park Service will be working with the homeowners to coordinate the cleanup.
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