The National Park Service made the call because of what it called multiple threatened oceanfront structures. For people who live on Hatteras Island, this isn't new. Erosion has steadily eaten away the shoreline around the villages of Rodanthe and Buxton, and 32 homes have collapsed into the sea since 2020.
State officials sounded the alarm on the scale of the problem back in November. At a state meeting, they said they were tracking 100 threatened structures across the two small villages, and they warned that more losses were likely on the way.
The math is brutal for homeowners on this stretch of barrier island. Dozens of houses have already gone under, and with 100 more flagged as at risk, the nor'easter is just the latest reminder that the ocean is winning. Beach closures protect people walking the shore, but they don't fix the erosion eating away the land underneath these homes. It's a stretch of North Carolina coastline that keeps shrinking every time a big storm rolls through.