BUXTON, N.C.– As a powerful fall nor’easter slams the Carolinas with heavy rain, damaging winds and coastal flooding, one of the main concerns is the risk of more beach house collapses on the shores of the Outer Banks.
Nine homes along the beach in Buxton, North Carolina, collapsed in just over two weeks from mid-September to early October as swells from hurricanes Humberto and Imelda slammed the East Coast.
Another house in Buxton, North Carolina, has been added to the list of destruction as the effects of Post-Tropical Storm Imelda have destroyed an additional home.
Drone video from FOX Weather Exclusive Storm Tracker Mark Sudduth shot on Saturday morning showed a few of the precarious homes left standing, as they were relentlessly battered by the rough conditions brought on by the nor’easter.
FOX Weather Correspondent Katie Byrne reported from the beaches of Buxton, where she witnessed one of the homes collapse into the ocean on Oct. 2.
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Conditions in Buxton, North Carolina, are worsening as a powerful nor’easter brings heavy rain, dangerous surf and damaging winds to the East Coast. FOX Weather Correspondent Katie Byrne reports from the beach where several homes have collapsed into the ocean in recent weeks.
An empty gap remains where the home once was.
“We’ve got this nor’easter on top of a week of King Tides,” Byrne said. “It’s really just a recipe for trouble for this coastline that’s already vulnerable after being battered by rough waves for weeks now.”
Byrne noted that one of the remaining houses now has additional support beneath it after the home she watched collapse fell into the one still standing.
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A stationary camera shows one of the houses left standing after a home collapse on Oct. 2. Extra supports were added to help keep it upright.
(FOX Weather Exclusive Storm Tracker Mark Sudduth / FOX Weather)
Sudduth’s drone video also showed the extra support installed on some of the beach homes’ stilts in an effort to keep them from sustaining more damage from the strong ocean surf.
While updating us on the status of the beaches, Byrne spoke to Sudduth, who was setting up stationary cameras trained on the beach homes in case of more collapses during the conditions from the nor’easter.
Extra supports and board help keep beach houses on Buxton’s beaches standing.
(FOX Weather Exclusive Storm Tracker Mark Sudduth / FOX Weather)
“These coming high tide cycles, Katie, could be pretty bad for these houses,” Sudduth said.
Sudduth, a North Carolina native, said the damage to the beach and these homes is personal, as he grew up in the Outer Banks.
“This is important to me, more than just a job,” he said. “My memories are out here with my family for three generations, really.”
Another angle of the video shared by Sudduth showed the sagging porch of one of the houses, where the staircase had been washed away.
The ocean pooled at the base of the stilts, which keeps these houses above water.
The sagging porch of one abandoned beach home on Buxton’s shores.
(FOX Weather Exclusive Storm Tracker Mark Sudduth / FOX Weather)
Ten years ago, the beach was much further out than it currently is, and sand and beach dunes separated the homes from the wrath of the ocean.
Now, a system like this nor’easter could take multiple homes out in one go, destroying decades of memories and dreams of so many families that own the homes.
Conditions in the Carolinas should ease up by the start of the workweek, according to the FOX Forecast Center.
