A pile of debris still sits up near the dunes of GA Kohler Court. A subtle reminder of the most recent home collapse in Rodanthe, the fourth in the last six weeks.
Securing funding to potentially purchase threatened structures remains the priority, but barriers remain.
"I'd say probably the biggest issue is the funding sources that do exist typically don't qualify for a home that isn't considered a primary residence. So a lot of these houses along the oceanfront are typically vacation or, rental properties where a homeowner, a single homeowner, isn't living in them for majority of the year. So, therefore they don't qualify for some of that funding that would typically exist," said Alyson Flynn, coastal advocate and environmental economist with the North Carolina Coastal Federation.
Watch: Third Rodanthe house in the past week collapses in the Outer Banks
In Dare County, the search for a funding source continues. County officials are in talks with the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency to see if Rodanthe fits into that criteria.
“If it's not Park Service funding, if it's not NCORR funding, which is state funding, then the only other funding source becomes county funding. Do you use the county's tax base to use tax dollars that we all pay to do something with these houses and the answer is, I don't know the answer to that, yet," said Bobby Outten, Dare County manager.
The Cape Hatteras National Seashore tapped into funds for a pilot program in 2023 that funded the purchase and demolishing of two oceanfront threatened homes. The National Park Trust paid for the appraisals and the Land and Water Conservation Fund foot the bill for the homes that were then demolished.
Watch: Second Rodanthe house in 2 days collapses into the ocean on the Outer Banks
"In the future, if we were to do this again, if we would go through the same process, we would have to determine, does somebody want to sell the house to us? Then if so, you know, can we find funding for it?" said David Hallac, superintendent of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.
But even if a funding source is found, Dare County and the Cape Hatteras National Seashore would still need to go to the homeowners and negotiate.
"You gotta have a willing seller first of all, and a lot of the sellers may or may not be willing to sell at the numbers that we could afford to do. They have some incentives to wait and let houses fall so they can get their insurance," said Outten.
Insurance remains another barrier. Right now the National Flood Insurance Program will only pay out if the home collapses. Flynn said homeowners in that program have a $250,000 pay out for the structure and another $100,000 for the contents inside the home.
Watch: Another Rodanthe oceanfront house collapses in the Outer Banks
"If he (the homeowner) lets it sit there until it falls, it will cost him roughly $50,000 to clean up the mess it makes, and he's responsible for that cost. So if he lets it fall, he's going to net $200,000 so if he's going to sell that house, he's only going to sell it if he can net at least $200,000. If you take go back to the houses that still have a life left in them, the ones that are going to be in danger at the current erosion rates in a year or two. Then what do you do with them? If you're going to buy them out now, then you're going to have to pay the market rate, and those are going to be much bigger numbers than that insurance rate, or you're gonna have to wait till they're teetering on the verge of collapse and pay $200,000 then. But then you haven't solved your problem," said Outten.
To change the NFIP policy for a payout before the collapse, that could only happen in Washington, D.C.
"It takes Congress to do that, we can't. They don't have that authority without Congress doing that and there's been some discussion of that as well, whether that leads anywhere or not, we'll see," said Outten.
Watch: Rodanthe oceanfront homes being monitored during presence of high winds and surf
Though the hope is that this issue can be addressed, there isn’t a clear path forward. But leaders also see this as a chance for North Carolina to be a leader in finding a solution that can be established across the country.
“Any sort of federal framework that could maybe serve as guidance for states, and then that could trickle down, the states could help guide local municipalities. Hopefully North Carolina can serve as a model to other coastal states of how to handle this. But unfortunately, in working through that, we're having to deal with a very extreme case right now in Rodanthe," said Flynn.
