Note: This is not meant to be a commentary on climate change. It's just my general observations about coastal living.
As I wrote in my piece on Southport, North Carolina, in the aftermath of the mass shooting that happened there last Saturday night, the coast of my great state holds a special place in my heart and is home to many memories of time spent there both as a child and an adult.
Some of the trips I've taken to the coast, which includes the Outer Banks (OBX), have been with family; others have been with friends. But while I remember a lot about them, the dates I took them are a bit hazy, so bear with me as I recall some past excursions to our beautiful beaches.
One trip I took was in the late 1990s, if I recall correctly, when a friend and I traveled to the Kitty Hawk/Duck area for what turned out to be a mostly rainy weekend.
READ MORE (VIP): Southport, Sweet Southport
Duck was (and is) absolutely adorable, and is perfectly situated between Kitty Hawk and the Currituck Lighthouse in Corolla, which happens to be my favorite one in NC, along with the Bodie Island Lighthouse, which is located in Nags Head.
I've learned that photos of this lighthouse will be in next month's American Cinematographer
— Daniel | @videogeorgia (@videogeorgia) May 26, 2023
not my photos of course, as I'm not in the ASC. And the ASC member's photos weren't taken with a drone
Currituck Lighthouse, Corolla NC on the Outer Banks pic.twitter.com/zg6Gq1Yxrz
Bodie Island Lighthouse: standing tall since 1872 🌊 pic.twitter.com/PLrxOFZM77
— Ginalilvol (@Ginalilvol) July 21, 2024
Just looking at the photos gives me that warm and fuzzy nostalgic feeling.
As we drove along NC-12, which is the main artery that connects you from one place to another along the OBX, I marveled at some of the multi-million dollar two and three-story houses we saw, which looked recently built but had almost no land behind them and only the road in front of them. And on the other side of the road was just more of the ocean.
My first thought, after mentioning how beautiful they were, was that someone must have had money to burn, because considering often how the coast gets battered by storms, including hurricanes, of course (they don't call it the "Graveyard of the Atlantic" for nothing), I figured they probably wouldn't be there for long.
Many years later, after a family trip we took to Oak Island and Southport, I came home and Googled real estate prices along the coast, not because I could afford anything close to the water, but just to see what the market looked like.
I was shocked to find a rainbow row of townhomes better known as the Topsail Reef Condos on Topsail Island - a barrier island that is not part of OBX but which is also a touristy beach area in NC. The prices were shockingly low. I knew there had to be a reason why. Sure enough, these units, though still inhabitable, are living on borrowed time, constantly needing sandbags and beach nourishment projects to protect them.
They are still a bargain when one considers how much beachfront living typically costs. One I saw that is currently on the market as of this writing is listed at $145,000 for one bedroom, one bathroom, and a little over 500 sq ft.
Topsail Island North Carolina - Topsail Island is a 26-mile barrier island off the coast of North Carolina. It contains Topsail Beach, North Topsail Beach, and Surf City. https://t.co/SDupeXLvix via @findrentals pic.twitter.com/bohNXMH0uS
— Find Rentals (@FINDRENTALS) February 7, 2023
Our beaches and the homes that line the shores are things of beauty, and worth the financial investment, considering the risks involved, including the cost of insurance, assuming you can even get it in some areas.
But no matter what a beachfront homeowner does to protect their investment, if hurricane-force winds don't take it down, the chances are near 100 percent that beach erosion will eventually wash it out to sea.
We saw this over the last week as eight homes - all of which were uninhabitable - in Buxton fell into the sea as a result of the combined power of the winds and rain from Hurricanes Imelda and Humberto:
Video coming in from our crews in Buxton of *5* houses collapsing within the past couple of hours. pic.twitter.com/p1OwOrhIOH
— Evan Stewart 13News Now (@13EvanStewart) September 30, 2025
Buxton, which is also part of the OBX, is home to the famed Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.
And as I was writing this, there were reports of one falling in Rodanthe, which is north of Buxton:
Another Outer Banks house has fallen into the ocean, but this time in Rodanthe, the Cape Hatteras National Seashore says.
— WTKR News 3 (@WTKR3) October 3, 2025
Since Tuesday, eight houses have collapsed in Buxton, with the ninth falling in Rodanthe Friday night.
Credit: Valerie Ballowehttps://t.co/CgSVrdrMq3 pic.twitter.com/YdmmiofC6Y
That makes 21 North Carolina homes that have fallen into the Atlantic Ocean over the last five years.
It's just sad to watch someone's hopes and dreams get claimed by the sea. But it's just a fact of life if you live in a hurricane-prone area. Nothing and no one lasts forever. But if we're blessed, we at least get to hold on to the memories.
