Beach erosion threatens homes in North Carolina's Outer Banks
Danny Couch of the Dare County Board of Commissioners in North Carolina says four homes are in imminent danger with as many as 10 homes in danger in a 12-month span in the area due to erosion.
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00:00Good morning, thank you for being with us, Danny.
00:03Good morning. Alright, so we saw the home in
00:06Rodanthe crumble into the ocean last week.
00:08Can you tell us how many other homes
00:11may be in danger of a collapse?
00:13There are four in imminent danger and
00:15overtime given a 12 month scenario here,
00:18there could be as many as 10.
00:21And I'll tell you that.
00:25Uh, where Deer County leadership
00:27we're getting a little wary of the
00:30optics with these houses collapsing
00:32into the surf. It's just not a good
00:34look for a national seashore. Yeah,
00:36for sure. Can any of these homes be
00:39saved or moved and then if a home
00:41is tagged as a safety issue,
00:43do they get abandoned?
00:44How does their county enforce that?
00:48They can be moved.
00:49One of the complications or
00:51challenges I should say is the
00:53fact that this being a national
00:54park, the federal government
00:56owns about 85% of Cape Hatteras,
00:58so we're kind of limited in where
01:00these houses can be moved.
01:02You know, back in the day with
01:05these smaller structures,
01:06there were a lot more easily moved,
01:09but when you get up to something,
01:1168 bedrooms, even more,
01:13that's an expensive proposition
01:14to relocate those.
01:15But we're trying to do some buyouts
01:18in partnership with the federal government.
01:21We're also trying to do some
01:23buyouts in partnership with the
01:25federal government. We're also
01:27trying to take a look at things from
01:30being more proactive on septic discharge.
01:33The physical debris that's up and down
01:35the beach is yes, that's that's not good,
01:38but also the septic discharge
01:40is concerning as well.
01:42That's just public safety.
01:43How is erosion and the potential
01:46for more powerful hurricanes
01:47impacting Dares County safety planning?
01:51Oh, as you know, we're a pretty
01:54high strike probability here.
01:56We're right behind Florida,
01:58but we're trying to just make people
02:01aware of that these homes when you
02:04buy a home that's in the in a hazard
02:07area like that you need to know
02:10what your options are and so it's
02:13mostly education just trying to
02:15keep people educated.
02:16It's a great place to visit.
02:19It's a great place to invest in,
02:21but at the same time have your eyes open.
02:24And we know that beach nourishment
02:25efforts are not scheduled.
02:27Can you tell us why that is?
02:29Man, it's expensive.
02:30That's a that as you know,
02:33that's a very high.
02:35I mean, the erosion there is accelerated,
02:38so even though we've done a good job
02:41maintaining a fund balance to handle
02:43beach nourishment throughout the
02:45length of Dare County,
02:46that is quite a challenge in Rodanthe.
02:48That's a $40 million startup.
02:51And being a small village there,
02:54you have to have some buy in skin in the
02:57game sort of so to speak from the
03:00homeowners there and it's really expensive.
03:03But project in Nags Head,
03:06even a project further South in Avon
03:08and in Buxton where the Cape
03:10Outers Lighthouse is that was around
03:13topping out at around 20 million.
03:15But Rodanthe because of the challenges there,
03:18it's one of the highest erosion
03:19rates on the East Coast.
03:21That's a lot of money at beach.
03:23Beach nourishment is something in the toolbox.
03:26But man, it's expensive.
03:28Danny couch with the Dare County
03:30Board of Commissioners.
03:31Incredibly knowledgeable on this topic.
03:33We really appreciate you
03:34joining us this morning.
03:36I appreciate y'all.