'It's reaching a crisis point': Outer Banks leaders say they're out of funding to save threatened beach communities

Dare County leaders said they can no longer afford to build back beaches in the Outer Banks that have been swallowed by the ocean, sending multiple houses collapsing in recent years.

Leaders said communities are now at risk, but state law is holding them back from finding potential solutions.

Video of one of the crashes went viral – but a year later, not much has improved.

“Our hands are tied because of the money,” Dare County Commissioner Danny Couch told WRAL News. “We don’t have a lot of options, we have an option at this point, and it’s beach nourishment.”

Cleanup crews from other states come to Outer Banks after homes destroyed in Rodanthe

As barrier islands, natural erosion causes the Outer Banks to shift and move through the years, placing structures near the Atlantic Ocean in jeopardy over time.

Dare County leaders told WRAL News that according to North Carolina law, the only way they could build up their oceanfront beaches is through beach nourishment, the process of collecting sand from elsewhere and depositing it on the eroded shoreline.

A single-year record of nearly $100 million was spent on beach nourishment in the Outer Banks in 2021, with Dare County paying $30 million for projects at Buxton and Avon.

But this week, the county held a meeting to explain why beach nourishment isn’t happening in Rodanthe.

“The county doesn’t have the funds to pay for a beach nourishment project,” Dare County Manager Bobby Outten said. “We don’t have $30 million to do that, and without an influx of new money, we aren’t going to be in a position to nourish in Rodanthe.”

Outten said the county typically pays for beach nourishment through a fund supplied by their occupancy tax. The fund generated nearly $15 million during both fiscal year 2021 and 2022 due to an explosion in the county’s growth rate tied to the pandemic, but Outten said it typically only takes in under $400,000 annually.

A 2013 Dare County study estimated beach nourishment in Rodanthe would cost $20 million, and Outten said the county’s beach nourishment fund only has $6 million available.

Dare County leaders also said state law effectively bans them from even studying alternative tools to build up oceanfront beaches, such as energy attenuating devices that have been implemented in other countries.

County leaders told a crowd of citizens Wednesday night that unless the state or federal government were to give them funding for beach nourishment, they couldn’t stop the erosion in Rodanthe.

“When do we begin the discussion about other tools?” Outten said. “Because one day, we’re going to use up all the sand that’s close enough that we can put it on the beach.

“One day, it’s going to be too expensive not only to do new projects, but do the projects that we’ve got to do, and what do we do then?”

Outer Banks homes keep falling into the ocean, and septic tanks causing issues

It’s not merely a crisis of vacation homes: During the community meeting, full-time Outer Banks residents said the surf has been washing over roads from Rodanthe down to Hatteras Island, sometimes leaving them trapped in their homes for days after strong storms.

Some homeowners in Rodanthe have turned to desperate measures.

On Seagull Street, preparations have been made to move every home 45 feet back from the ocean.

It’s a move that county leaders said should buy them a few years – but wouldn’t stop home collapses elsewhere in the community.

“It’s reaching a crisis point here, and our legislators are paying attention,” Couch said. “I am a betting man, and I’m going to bet that the first six months are not going to be good of 2023 here on the Outer Banks.

Dare County is currently working on a new study to determine how much a beach nourishment project would cost for Rodanthe. County leaders said they expected to have the results by March.