In the Outer Banks, Officials and Property Owners Battle to Keep the Ocean at Bay

[HAB911]

Nags Head’s struggle with beach erosion and litigious homeowners offers a preview of what’s to come as storms and rising seas hit communities from Maine to Texas.

NAGS HEAD, North Carolina—This hurricane season, Lance Goldner harbored an unusual wish: that his beach house on North Carolina's scenic Outer Banks would collapse in a storm.

Goldner bought the property with his brother 14 years ago, when it was part of a row of cottages perched above the high-tide line. They'd planned to rent it out, but for much of the past decade, the faded yellow structure has stood vacant. Today, insulation spills from its bowels. Windows are boarded up. And high tides wash underneath between pilings, even on calm days.

Ever since a nor'easter slammed the Outer Banks in 2009, damaging hundreds of homes along these barrier islands, Goldner's cottage has been largely uninhabitable. The storm sucked the land out from beneath the homes. Now only two remain in a row that once numbered 10. Erosion has gradually consumed the shoreline in the tourist town of Nags Head, seizing homes and threatening nearly a billion dollars' worth of property.

Sea level rise from climate change is making matters worse. For homeowners caught in the middle, the damage has left some facing substantial financial losses.

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/28112017/nags-head-north-carolina-beach-erosion-climate-change-sea-level-rise?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

[hatrack]

1. OMG! I bought a house on a barrier island, and it's . . . it's . . . ERODING!!!!

Somebody better call the feds and bail out this visionary - and millions more like him, of course.

[PJMcK]

2. A few thoughts

First, if Mr. Gardner and his brother bought the house as an investment and rental property, it would need near-constant maintenance to keep it competitive as a rental house. While the storm that has eroded the foundation was not his fault, Mr. Gardner should have had the foresight to either shore up his pilings OR buy a different house in the first place.

Second, his wish that the house is destroyed in a storm is disgusting. He wants the government or an insurance company to bail him out for his poor decision. (Without any evidence, I bet he's a Republican.)

Third, these events are going to increase over the next 50 years. People better get ready for it.

[KT2000]

3. waterfront property - Yay!

These people need some lessons in geology. Their Nag's Head was formed by erosion from the mainland. That is what the earth does and climate change will speed the process. Our area has hosted geologists to explain how erosion is affecting all of us. Actually we got a clue from the houses that are now sliding down the cliffs.

I live half a mile back from a bluff that is always eroding. The erosion has formed two spits that are attractions. New neighbors who bought along the bluff, that includes the bluff and beach, want to cut down the trees that are holding the bluff together so they get a better view.

[Duppers]

4. Folks on the bluffs in Yorktown VA

Did the same. I know a few of these rich idiots.