An unoccupied house collapsed in the Outer Banks in North Carolina this week, the sixth dwelling lost in the past four years, according to officials for the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

The house in Rodanthe, North Carolina, collapsed at around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday, CHNS officials said. A section of shoreline was closed so that debris could be cleaned up.

A section of road in Rodanthe remains closed. CHNS officials warned visitors in a Thursday release to “consider wearing hard-soled shoes and remain cautious on the beach and in the water in front of Rodanthe as pieces of debris continue to wash ashore.”

Smaller pieces of debris have washed up in a 15-mile-long section of the beach.

Erosion along the seashore has caused five other house collapses since 2020, officials said. In Rodanthe and Buxton, North Carolina, many properties that once had backyard buffer land and sand separating houses from the ocean have since been inundated regularly with seawater.

Severe weather exacerbates the situation, with two of the six house collapses happening in Rodanthe during a nor’easter on May 10, 2022. 

Concerns about the erosion of the barrier islands that make up the Outer Banks led officials to move the Cape Hatteras lighthouse nearly 3,000 feet inland in 1999. When it was first constructed in 1870, it had been 1,500 feet away from the ocean, CHNS officials said.

• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.