Residents and officials comment after home collapses near Rodanthe Pier

RODANTHE, N.C. (WAVY) — A house along Ocean Drive is the latest to collapse along the Outer Banks of North Carolina, according to a release from the National Park Service.

Officials said a house just south of the Rodanthe Pier collapsed around 4 a.m., causing debris to scatter throughout the area, with some getting into the ocean.

Debbie Roberts was next door and had been keeping her eye on it. She was one of the first on scene.

“I’ve actually taken pictures and measured from the window of that house and measured to see how much the house was moving,” Roberts said. “And every day I saw that it was moving, and I know it is going to go in before I leave, I just know it is … and sure enough it happened.”

The area is no stranger to collapses, as Western Carolina University professor Robert Young states the area has one of the highest erosion rates on the East Coast, sometimes up to 15 feet a year.

“We are lucky because conditions are calm today,” said David Hallac, Superintendent of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. “It is making clean up a little bit easier, but it will still require days and days if not weeks of cleanup to clean up the debris drifting to the north.” 

One family from Charlotte rents across the street and said they noticed it looked unsteady the day before.

“We got here yesterday, we saw that it was leaning, and I said that one is not looking so good,” Lauren Combs said. “When we woke up this morning the kids came out and said the house is gone. We all came out and sure enough it had fallen, it was in the water.”

This collapse marks the sixth house collapse on Seashore beaches within the past four years.

Photos from WAVY 10 viewer Adam Bittmann shows the collapsed house with debris surrounding the area.

Bittmann told 10 On Your Side the woman next door heard creaks coming from the house around 4 a.m., followed by the sound of the collapse. Brittmann claims the wind from Monday’s storms is the most likely reason for the collapse.

“There are lots of questions,” Bittmann said. “Why the houses aren’t emptied. It’s to the point it looks like the house will collapse and who is responsible for arranging the contracts to do it? It’s hard to fathom how much trash comes from a house that breaks up and scatters it’s one of the worst things.”

While crews work to clean up the debris, an approximate one-mile section of the beach is closed from Sea Haven Drive to South Shore Drive.

Late in the afternoon, the Cape Hatteras National Seashore announced a volunteer beach cleanup Wednesday morning 8-11:30 a.m. All those interested are invited to show up at Rodanthe Pier.

Visitors are also urged to avoid the beaches north of Sea Haven Drive into the southern portion of Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge due to the direction the debris is expected to drift.

For more information on threatened oceanfront structures along the North Carolina seashore, visit the National Park Service’s website here.