So far this year three houses have been claimed by the Atlantic Ocean at Cape Hatteras National Seashore on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, polluting the seashore with construction materials, furnishings, sewage from septic tanks, and more. While more houses could be pulled down by the ocean, the National Park Service is searching for a solution but has yet to order homeowners to relocate their houses before they collapse.
"We will continue to proactively work with homeowners to prevent future impacts to the seashore," Superintendent Dave Hallec told the Traveler in an email Wednesday. "We are also exploring other options to prevent ongoing and future potential impacts to the seashore."
The first house to go, located at 24183 Ocean Drive in Rodanthe, collapsed onto the national seashore's property in February as the Atlantic undercut its foundational footers. The debris from that house spread across many miles of beach before the homeowner and volunteers in an organized beach cleanup event were able to remove much of it. On May 10 two more houses were lost to the ocean, sending debris miles down the seashore's beachfront. More than 100 volunteers turned out to help clean up the debris.
Now, when the houses were first constructed, they were outside the national seashore's boundary, which reaches up to the high tide line on the beaches. But as years have gone by and storms have come and gone, the beachfront has been eroded away to where it is now, with the high tide swirling around the pilings that the houses stand on.
The situation has placed the Park Service in a difficult position, as it's job is to preserve parks unimpaired for future generations, but so far the national seashore staff has not taken any legal action to order the removal of additional homes in danger of collapse, or condemn them because they're in danger of collapse so the homeowners might be able to collect insurance, though it has discussed the issue with Interior Department lawyers.
The Dare County (North Carolina) Building Inspector has in at least eight instances notified homeowners that their homes were no longer safe.
"We recommended that the homes be moved away from the ocean to prevent additional potential impacts to Cape Hatteras National Seashore," Hallec said Wednesday.
Back in March the superintendent told the Traveler that "we do not want to have damage and litter all across miles of a national seashore."
Part of the problem with relocating homes in advance of their being pulled down by the Atlantic is that the homeowners can't collect on their property insurance until after the structures have been destroyed.
"It's our understanding that many of these homeowners are actually waiting for the ocean to take the home so that they can then get an insurance reimbursement," Hallec said during that March conversation.
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