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.