r/interestingasfuck • u/Endolithic • Jun 06 '25

Homes are falling into the ocean in North Carolina's Outer Banks /r/all

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u/temporary62489 Jun 06 '25

beach renourish efforts

Just keep feeding the ocean more and more sand hoping that it eventually gets full?

111

u/rabid_spidermonkey Jun 06 '25

It's worse than that. It's building jetties and relocating sand, both of which have been shown time and time again to speed up the migration of coastal barrier islands. So yeah you've got your summer beach back, but come winter that shit is gone again + interest.

38

u/GirchyGirchy Jun 06 '25

We're an incredibly selfish and stupid species.

27

u/RangerFan80 Jun 06 '25

Also arrogant to think we can tame the fucking ocean.

3

u/Orpa__ Jun 07 '25

We Dutch are doing a pretty good job at it I'd say.

6

u/FUCKINHATEGOATS Jun 06 '25

Don’t forget they are funding all that by having paid parking all over the islands now. What was once a cheap family outing is now not feasible for some. I’ve seen $100/day for parking in some areas.

5

u/fatkiddown Jun 06 '25

Stupid question: so it's not rising oceans due to melting the ice caps, it's just building a house in a place that's known to be ground (sand) or ocean at any given time?

14

u/omniverso Jun 06 '25

not a stupid question. in reality, its both of those things.

8

u/rabid_spidermonkey Jun 06 '25 edited Jun 06 '25

Not stupid at all. Rising ocean levels are also accelerating coastal erosion and barrier island migration. With more water, everything is happening faster and affecting higher elevations than it would without human caused global climate change.

20

u/rekkeu Jun 06 '25

Probably dredging sand and dumping it on/close to shore. They do that to NJ beaches around where I am. 

3

u/Chickadee12345 Jun 06 '25

I see it happening in NJ all the time. I think it's funny that Ocean City keeps losing their beaches. All the sand washes down to Wildwood. Because there is that big jetty they built to protect the intercoastal waterway. Or maybe some other reason, I am actually not sure why. Wildwood Crest used to be a really reasonable sized beach. Now it takes so much longer to get to the ocean.

3

u/rekkeu Jun 06 '25

I don't go there anymore but I used to frequent LBI in the Beach Haven area. Every time the beach would look different from the last, either 1/3 the size or rebuilt and a football field wide again. I remember asking my parent what the huge ships were as a kid and they told me about the dredgers. I'd see them personally maybe every other year. 

4

u/He2oinMegazord Jun 06 '25

Its only one ocean Michael, how much could it eat? 10 sands?

3

u/Gecko23 Jun 06 '25

The sand washes out and starts building new dunes further out, basically the barrier breaks down as it moves inland and a new one forms behind it as it goes. It’s interesting because you can often find that the water a couple hundred feet off shore is only a few feet deep because of the submerged dunes.

The replenishment method they’ve been using has been to dredge that sand that’s piled up offshore and pump it back to the beach. It’ll just wash right back out to where it was, and if they haven’t given up they’ll try it again.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '25

I have a feeling that in 20 years all the houses will be gone and it will be a wildlife refuge just like pea island. Not really that much left there if you love the beach. And I'm still feeling the effects of the 4 different molds and chemicals to fight the mold we used.

1

u/GuestCartographer Jun 06 '25

It is a little but like that, yeah.

1

u/ralfonso_solandro Jun 07 '25

Fuckin jeenyus this guy