BUXTON, N.C. – Residents in Buxton, North Carolina are doing just about everything they can to salvage belongings as aggressive tides continue to pose a major threat to oceanfront properties.
On the scene in Buxton, FOX Weather Correspondent Robert Ray spoke with two men who used a ladder to scale a compromised property and rescue furniture and belongings out of a house after its stairway was destroyed. Since Sept. 30, Nine houses in Buxton have succumbed to the Atlantic Ocean as the threat of additional destruction looms.
Two men used a ladder to scale a damaged house in Buxton, North Carolina to salvage belongings after the stairs were destroyed.
(FOX Weather)
Nate Bopp and Thomas Payette, of Virginia, traveled to Buxton and entered the home of a friend on Tuesday in an effort to salvage belongings from the damaged, waterfront property.
“… You got to remember, people have photographs, they have photo albums that none of these people have been able to get out, so we’re trying to get as much as we can for them,” Bopp said.
Bopp said they were attempting to salvage belongings from a house that belonged to their friends that reside in Iowa.
When asked by FOX Weather Correspondent Robert Ray whether the home would survive king high tides and strong surf that will continue to rattle the Buxton beachfront, Bopp replied, “No.”
“When I was a kid, there was 200, 250 yards of beach,” said Bopp, who said he has been coming to Buxton since 1983.
Debris from homes washed away by rough surf in Buxton, North Carolina after Hurricane Imelda passed off shore in October 2025.
(Instagram/@b_the_photos / FOX Weather)
Due to aggressive beach erosion, the properties that once had dunes and sand to provide coastal resilience now sit directly on the Atlantic Ocean without a natural barrier.
“My dear friend… she was interviewed the other day, her house was here,” Bopp said. “She never got her stuff out. Some of it was her husband’s, who passed away a few years ago, (it’s) gone.”
Since Sept. 30, nine homes have collapsed in Buxton, where the threatened structures experienced severe impacts from Hurricanes Imelda and Humberto.
Not out of the clear yet, structures on the Buxton beachfront remain under pressure as a result of unusual high tides spawned by the super moon and king tides that will peak Wednesday morning in the Outer Banks.
