MANTEO, N.C. — Officials from the Cape Hatteras National Seashore detailed the ongoing cleanup effort after two houses collapsed into the ocean at G A Kohler Court in Rodanthe on Friday.
Early Friday morning, Seashore law enforcement rangers were called to 23001 G A Kohler Court for a report of an unoccupied house collapse. As the structure crumbled, authorities said, the neighboring house at 23009 G A Kohler Court took damage.
That second home then collapsed shortly after 9:15 p.m. on Friday. Officials say that this collapse may have caused damages to another neighboring house at 23039 G A Kohler Court, which is now slated to be removed by a contractor before it can collapse.
High tides and a few other factors have delayed this house's removal, authorities said.
Meanwhile, cleanup efforts have involved creating large piles of debris high above the tide line, collected by hand along 16 miles of beach, which are then removed to a staging area. Before the cleanup efforts began, debris could be observed over 20 miles south of the former sites.
Officials also said community members, visitors, and the owner's family assisted "significantly" with cleaning up the debris around 23001 G A Kohler Court.
There is no timeline for this project's completion, officials said, due to the potential of additional debris washing up or becoming exposed from under the sand. Cleanup is slated to continue this week.