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/Electronic-Jaguar389 Jun 06 '25

“Cement! Why didn’t I think of that!”

Somebody with most likely decades of building knowledge.

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u/Plenty_Rope_2942 Jun 06 '25

As an ex-resident of the OBX (North Topsail before it became a resort town when folks on the island still had job descriptions besides "ex-wife of a corporate contracts lawyer") I love hearing people argue about "stilt houses" that are getting sucked out to sea. It never gets old, and it used to happen pretty much annually.

The house. Survived. Being surrounded by hurricane-level storm surge. For days.

Meanwhile, the asphalt and cement roads and driveways up to them disappeared and crumbled into the sea within the first 30 minutes.

https://preview.redd.it/wu6szmlwld5f1.png?width=2293&format=png&auto=webp&s=bf6d0801344e89eff14c6b2db5ad6d279f52d525

Look at the images from Hurricane Fran, where basically every roadway, cement structure, and pad was ripped clean off the island in minutes. Anything not lost was condemned. What's still standing, almost untouched? The lumber piled buildings (less siding and roofs, of course.)

It's the best solution anybody has EVER come up with to living with the sea as your front porch.

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u/Electronic-Jaguar389 Jun 06 '25

It’s crazy! It’s almost as if tons of trial and error came before the building process! 

For real though people really hate on all American houses (on stilts or not) even though there’s a perfectly good reason for why we build our houses a certain way.

We have natural disasters somewhere in this country basically monthly. We don’t build with stone or cement because the last thing you want during a natural disaster is ten tons of bricks and cement coming through your wall. We build houses to last 50-80 years (if they’re not scammy builders because we do have those too) at most because no matter what you use to build it, it’s not going to survive a wildfire, a F-4 tornado, a category 4 hurricane, etc. and within that time frame most likely you’re going to see one.