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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23

u/PaisleeClover Jun 06 '25

Most houses in the Outer Banks are on stilts.

17

u/BabySpecific2843 Jun 06 '25

Why are they on stilts if water was of no concern?

33

u/tinymeow13 Jun 07 '25

Often these are 1-2 blocks from the beach, behind a row of tall dunes and a street. Then the dunes washed away, the street disappeared, and the government decided not to rebuild the dunes. Part of the stilts is to protect them during storms, but they also elevate the living spaces so you can see the ocean over the dunes.

15

u/PaisleeClover Jun 06 '25

Who said water was of no concern? The Outer Banks are basically just big sandbars, long and skinny. None of the houses are very far from the ocean.

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u/arpw Jun 07 '25

Sounds like a stupid place to try to build a house then

20

u/ParkMan73 Jun 07 '25

This building style is pretty common im homes near the beach in NC. Even if you're safely inland, there are still occasional storms and hurricanes that raise the water level high enough to flood ground floor rooms. As a precaution, the homes are built so that flooding can occur without significant damage to the house and what's in it.

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u/FknDesmadreALV Jun 07 '25

Yeah but are the stilts on inland homes as tall as the ones in these pics ?

12

u/r0ckydog Jun 07 '25

Yes, the houses are built on 10-foot stilts so cars can park under them and beach accessories (chairs, umbrella, lawn darts, corn hole…) can be stored under the house.

3

u/ParkMan73 Jun 07 '25

Generally yes, they are that tall as these. These are not just for homes on the beach.

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u/FknDesmadreALV Jun 07 '25

Oh. Interesting. Idk I’ve seen houses being built in the PNW and down in Oaxaca, mx.

In Oaxaca I’ve seen very tall foundations for homes in areas that experience flash floods every year, but i don’t think I’ve seen straight up stilts like these.

And while I have paid attention to homes being built ok the coast, idk if they use the same building method as NC.

Interesting. Thank you for the reply.

2

u/ktrosemc Jun 12 '25

LOL...we don't use the stilts in the PNW because of earthquakes!

1

u/FknDesmadreALV Jun 12 '25

Lol autocorrect changed havent to have

4

u/PeaLouise Jun 07 '25

Rich people have long been building houses in the dumbest places.

1

u/Meta_Franko Jun 07 '25

It is implied when they are responding to my comment, which asked if they were saying that people build houses where water isn't a concern.

2

u/itstimeforpizzatime Jun 07 '25

Uhhh

https://preview.redd.it/dae7wxdq1f5f1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4b607159141596c5bf12b64d750ee9daf72113d0

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u/PaisleeClover Jun 07 '25

Sorry if I was unclear. The houses were probably a few lots from the ocean at one point. Not far, because nowhere in super far from the ocean on a barrier island, but not right on the beach.

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u/LakeExtreme7444 Jun 07 '25

I’m not sure why people don’t understand how this works. You’re explaining it perfectly. The OBX is a bunch of barrier islands that shift and change as storms roll through and nature “happens”. These shifts can take decades to occur. A foot closer to the ocean after the hurricane here, another foot closer due to flooding there, and boom, before you know it, your third row beach house turns into beachfront. They need to google Cape Hatteras Lighthouse if they think this is just a house thing.

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u/[deleted] Jun 07 '25 edited Jun 07 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/RichardFlower7 Jun 07 '25

In the 80s those houses were hundreds of yards away from the ocean. Through the 2000s beach erosion really took off. Each hurricane took even more. This is in the most extreme area of erosion, Rodanthe. These houses are along highway 12.

Nearly all houses in the outer banks are built on stilts because there is water on both sides of the land mass. The Atlantic Ocean to the east and the sound to the west. When hurricanes pass over, the water on the Atlantic side floods the beaches and pushes the water from the sound towards mainland NC. After the eye passes the islands land mass, the back end of the cyclone pushes all that water back towards the sound side of the island in a process called raking.

The wind pushing the water and the own kinetic energy of the water causes a storm surge of multiple feet, often flooding far into the island. It isn’t an issue for the houses on the stilts. It would be stupid to build them on the ground bc then they flood.

They’re not at risk of falling into the ocean simply because they’re on stilts, it’s just building code there. Insurers still write policies because they don’t expect the island to disappear for a long time, if the house is on stilts there’s minimal risk of flooding the interior of the home. Beach erosion will likely continue though. Especially at the S curves of highway 12 in rodanthe, in particular a community called Mirlo beach, where that house was located.

2

u/Tiny-Reading5982 Jun 07 '25

There are still hurricanes and flooding. Even the houses on the sound side are on stilts. But these houses were not that close to the water originally but erosion does happen.

4

u/autumn55femme Jun 07 '25

Which is on the ocean. Checks notes, which is water. Too close to the water. Climate change. Rising sea level. Bigger, more damaging storms. Erosion. Nothing that even remotely looks like this should even be insurable.