Third house since Friday collapses in Rodanthe on Tuesday afternoon; 10th home collapse in four years

Video from Chicamacomico Banks Fire & Rescue

4:30 P.M. UPDATE: The Cape Hatteras National Seashore CHNS) has temporarily closed the beach from G A Kohler Court in Rodanthe to Wimble Shores North Court in Waves. The temporary closure also includes Dare County’s Rodanthe Beach Access at 23731 N.C. Highway 12.

Another oceanfront home in Rodanthe collapsed at 1:05 p.m. on Tuesday, September 24, at the end of G A Kohler Court.

This is the third unoccupied home to collapse in the immediate area since Friday morning, September 20.

The home was located at 23039 G A Kohler Ct. and was a 4 bedroom, 4.5 bath structure that was built in 1998.

The collapse of an adjacent house on Friday had reportedly caused damage to the home, which was already slated to be removed by a contractor hired by the owner, Federal National Mortgage Association, (commonly known as Fannie Mae).

Elevated tides and other factors had delayed the preemptive removal of the house at 23039 G A Kohler Court, according to a Monday update from the Cape Hatteras National Seashore (CHNS).

On early Friday morning, September 20, a home collapsed at 23001 G A Kohler Court, causing severe damage to the pilings of a neighboring home at 23009 G A Kohler Court, which collapsed hours later at 9:15 p.m.

As of Monday, and since the first house collapse on September 20, CHNS employees have supplemented contractor cleanup efforts by hand collecting and forming many piles of debris above the high tide line, followed by removing more than 24 pickup truckloads of debris—collected along 16 miles of beach—to an off-site staging area.

The debris removal contractor and CHNS employees will continue to perform cleanup activities this week. There isn’t a timetable for restoration of the beach, due to the potential for additional debris to wash ashore or become exposed as the sand shifts.

Tuesday’s collapse is the fifth Rodanthe home collapse of 2024, and the 10th home to collapse since 2020.

The previous 2024 home collapses, (prior to Tuesday’s collapse and the two collapses on Friday, Sept. 20), included an unoccupied home on Corbina Drive that collapsed on August 16 and a home at the end of Ocean Drive in Rodanthe that collapsed on May 28.

On March 13, 2023, an oceanfront home collapsed at East Point Drive in Rodanthe, and on May 10, 2022, two unoccupied homes located on Ocean Drive collapsed within a 12-hour period.

In February 2022 and May 2020, two additional Rodanthe homes in the Ocean Drive vicinity also collapsed into the ocean.

All of these home collapses resulted in a large debris field on Hatteras Island, which was addressed and cleaned up by the National Park Service, local volunteers, and/or contractors enlisted by the homeowners themselves.

No personal injuries were reported in connection with any of the collapses.