Two houses at risk of collapsing into the Atlantic at Cape Hatteras National Seashore have been purchased by the National Park Service/NPS

Rather than wait until two houses collapsed into the ocean at Cape Hatteras National Seashore, the National Park Service has used $700,000 from the Land and Water Conservation Fund to purchase them and plans to have them removed.

In explaining the move, the Park Service said it was acting:

• To mitigate the ongoing impacts of having threatened oceanfront structures impact visitor safety, public health, and wildlife habitat at the Seashore.

• To assist threatened oceanfront structure owners that do not have viable options to move the structures or promptly remove debris following potential collapse.

• To restore the beach and make the sites a public beach access where visitors from the surrounding community can walk onto the Seashore beach areas without walking through private properties.

• To remove the structures or have the ability to respond to their collapse and clean up debris is a much quicker manner; thereby, minimizing impacts to park areas and visitors.

• To evaluate the feasibility of a larger program.

Since 2020, five houses have collapsed into the Atlantic at the national seashore. When they were initially built, they were back away from the surf line, but more potent storms, sea-level rise, and the natural movements of the barrier island that is home to the seashore moved them closer to the surf. Those collapses scattered building materials, and in some cases, raw sewage and potentially hazardous materials into the ocean and along the beaches.

The $700,000 purchase price of the two houses was determined by a certified appraiser and the Department of the Interior's Appraisal and Valuation Services Office. There was no immeddiate word on how much it would cost to remove the structures.