A beach house in North Carolina battered by waves keeled over and collapsed into the ocean in a dramatic moment caught on video.
The building was one of two unoccupied homes that fell into the sea as high tides and powerful winds whipped the on Tuesday.
A clip shows the brown house on stilts bend to a side and eventually flat into the water, and float up and down at the mercy of the crashing waves.
The second house broke apart in the water in four minutes, according to , who witnessed it. The top level of the building was the only part that stayed intact.
Both homes were located on the 24200 block of Ocean Drive in the community of Rodanthe. No one was injured.
The US National Park Service closed the areas around the homes as planks and other debris spread. Authorities are working with the homeowners to arrange cleanup, according to .
Another house had previously collapsed, and up to nine more homes are at risk of falling, the National Park Service stated at a public meeting in March. The structures have been compromised through more than a decade of erosion along the shoreline.
‘Unfortunately, there may be more houses that collapse onto Seashore beaches in the near future,’ stated National Parks of Eastern North Carolina superintendent David Hallac.
‘We proactively reached out to homeowners along Ocean Drive in Rodanthe after the first house collapse and recommended that actions be taken to prevent collapse and impacts to Cape Hatteras National Seashore.’
The Outer Banks are a chain of low-lying barrier islands. Sandbags have been used to hold the narrow islands in place, but that may put properties at more risk of being knocked into the ocean.
Federal funds have been approved to protect infrastructure and ensure safety and travel, but they do not cover private beach cottages, according to the park service.
.
For more stories like this, .
