This house, located at 23001 G. A. Kohler Court in Rodanthe, is the third to collapse in less than a four-month span so far this year. It collapsed in the early morning hours of Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, according to a Cape Hatteras National Seashore press release. (Photo courtesy National Park Service)
By Corinne Saunders
RODANTHE — An unoccupied oceanfront house in Rodanthe on Friday became the third house to collapse in less than a four-month-span so far this year and the eighth to collapse in the past four years.
This house, located at 23001 G. A. Kohler Court in Rodanthe, collapsed in the early morning hours on Friday, according to a Cape Hatteras National Seashore press release.
Visitors are encouraged to avoid the beach and stay out of the water around the north end of Rodanthe “and potentially for miles to the south” as debris spreads, and temporary beach closures for public safety are likely, according to the release sent shortly after 8:30 a.m.
The park service is also monitoring an adjacent home that sustained damage from this house collapse, the release said.
A Hampton, Virginia, man owned the now-collapsed two-story, 1,728-square-foot beach box built in 1992, according to online Dare County tax records.
A debris removal contractor the property owner hired is expected to begin cleanup work today, and National Park Service staff may also conduct debris removal activities, according to the press release.
Previously, a house located at 24131 Ocean Drive collapsed May 28, on a day when the Atlantic Ocean was calm.
The evening of August 16, as swells from offshore Hurricane Ernesto affected the area, a bystander captured a video—shared by Chicamacomico Fire and Rescue—of a house at 23214 Corbina Drive floating off into the ocean.
The houses in Rodanthe are beach homes and rental properties, generally for out-of-state owners. No injuries have been reported as each of the houses were unoccupied at the time of their collapse.
The property owners’ mailing address for the Ocean Drive house that collapsed was listed as in Arvene, New York, and the Corbina Drive house was owned by two people in Pennsylvania, according to online Dare County property records.
When built, each of the collapsed and currently threatened houses were located at a distance from the ocean.
The G.A. Kohler house was “well away from the ocean—all of these were,” Dare County Planning Director Noah Gillam said in a Friday morning phone interview following the collapse.
The house at 23001 G. A. Kohler Court in Rodanthe that collapsed Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, as it appeared while standing. (Photo courtesy Dare County GIS)
Online Dare County property records show that five lots used to be to the east of the Corbina Drive house that collapsed.
Erosion rates for the affected area of Rodanthe can be about 10 feet a year, David Hallac, superintendent of the National Parks of Eastern North Carolina, has said.
Other houses remain threatened on Hatteras Island.
Currently, nine houses in Rodanthe are de-certified for occupancy, meaning they are deemed unsafe and have the power pulled from them, Gillam said.
The house at 24131 Ocean Drive in Rodanthe collapsed on May 28, 2024, when the Atlantic Ocean was fairly calm. (Photo by Corinne Saunders)
He said his team looks for structural damages and is “still doing damage assessment” in Buxton, where it remains to be seen if or how many houses may be de-certified for occupancy.
“Environmental health has tagged six in the Buxton area,” he noted of a separate department expressing concerns about houses there.
The collapsed house on G. A. Kohler Court in Rodanthe was de-certified for occupancy on March 13, 2023, Gillam said.
“Septic was the main issue,” Gillam said. “He kept losing septic [and] ingress/egress—stairs.”
The owner pulled a permit for a drain field replacement in March 2023 and another permit this April, according to his records.
“Throughout this whole process, he’s made numerous repairs,” but never got back to the point of re-certification for occupancy, Gillam said.
Power was temporarily reinstated for purposes of air conditioning the house after an electrical contractor “locked out” certain outlets, but the power was pulled again on Aug. 12. At that point, “being able to make necessary repairs was unlikely,” Gillam said.
Prior to its de-certification in March 2023, Gillam said he believed the house was in a rental program.
Beach erosion rates can exceed 10 feet a year in this stretch of Hatteras Island, according to the National Park Service and about two dozen other oceanfront houses currently threatened, there is a high probability for this to not be the last.
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