RODANTHE, N.C. — As many know, the Outer Banks is comprised of barrier islands. But what exactly does that mean?
Reide Corbett moved to the Outer Banks in 2012 and has been studying coastal systems for more than 20-years.
"The way barrier islands work and maintain themselves are through three processes. You can think of a long shore current," said Corbett, the dean of Integrated Coastal Programs at ECU and the executive director of the Coastal Studies Institute in Wanchese.
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"Those currents that move water, you know, for us, north to south, are also moving a lot of sand. That's an important process for feeding the barrier island with sand and other material," Corbett continues. "Inlets are really important for moving sand on sort of the front of the island, back of the island, and overwash. Overwash is taking sand from the front side of the barrier to the backside of the barrier. And those are the three processes that can lead to a healthy barrier island.
"As you start building infrastructure on a barrier, it starts changing those natural processes. And that's sort of where we are today, is we've changed that natural process of overwash. We've changed where inlets can or where we will allow for inlets to open up and close, and that's because we have so much infrastructure on the barrier today."
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Another process synonymous with a barrier island is erosion. It's happening all around the Outer Banks — mostly in small increments — but one of the biggest hot spots is Rodanthe.
"It's an area that, for decades, for as long as we have been monitoring erosion along the Outer Banks, it's an area that has a high erosion rate, 10 to 15 feet per year of erosion," Corbett said. "We've seen an uptick in that short term erosion rate over the last several months, that's natural process associated with changes in energy in the system, the amount of storms, the amount of wave action that you have. It's no longer 'I just have a little erosion and not as much beach to lay my towel, it's I lost my porch, the pool was taken by the ocean'. It's because of the erosion for the last several years has left little area for that natural variability."
Five homes have been taken by the ocean in Rodanthe in 2024 and 10 total since 2020.
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Corbett, like Dare County and Cape Hatteras National Seashore leaders, said this is an issue that isn't going anywhere.
"Whether we like it or not, it's likely a precursor to what's going to happen more along the Outer Banks and along many coastal communities throughout the US," Corbett said. "The long term process for this barrier is erosion on the front side, deposition on the back side. These barriers aren't going to see significant accretion on the ocean side. It's just not going to happen unless we have a change in sea level. Sea level is rising. Lot of data to show that North Carolina, and this location, is seeing, on the order of four to five millimeters of elevation change sea level rise per year. We're going to see a one to one and a half foot rise in sea level in the next 30 years."
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So, what can be done?
Beach nourishment can help in areas from Nags Head to Corolla, Avon to Buxton. But, Corbett explains, it's not a realistic solution for an area like Rodanthe.
"One could argue whether it would be worthwhile to do it or not, because of that hot spot, that active erosion. It's not going to last," Corbett said. "It would truly be just a band aid for a very short period of time. We need to provide incentives to back off of that shoreline. We need to de-incentivize building and additional development along these most vulnerable shorelines. The baseline should be, do no more harm.”
For Rodanthe, that's easier said than done — as we have previously reported.
Currently, insurance plans will only cover claims after a house collapses.
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Dare County and the Cape Hatteras National Seashore continue to look for funding to address this, but even then, they would need to purchase the homes from homeowners.
Corbett says that there needs to be a way to find common ground.
"We, in my opinion, are the canary in the coal mine, right? Other communities are looking towards us and how we manage this, because they are facing similar things," Corbett said. "It's just we are facing it today. And so how we manage erosion in Rodanthe, Buxton, even here in the northern Outer Banks, is important policies that we put in place to manage that is going to be key. That is a reality, and it's something that we need to work together to manage and it's not going to be a win win for everybody, and that's something that we have to get comfortable with."
Though while all stakeholders work to find a solution, Mother Nature won't be waiting around for that to happen.
