By Noah Corbett | Managing Editor

November 14, 2023

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Rodanthe, North Carolina, already lost its fourth house to the ocean this year.^[1] It begs the question of what to do when the sea literally washes your house away? Even if your house is still on land, nobody wants to waste their money on a risky investment house that will float away in a few years’ time. Plus, regardless of whether homeowners have insurance, they are still on the hook for cleanup efforts which are often costly and stretch for miles.^[2] As such, North Carolina, like much of the world, is on the verge of a coastal crisis.

I am not alone in saying this; the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association, and North Carolina’s Coastal Resource Commission agree that low-lying coastal areas are in danger of being swallowed by the ocean’s waves.^[3] They disagree on how quickly or how high the level of the sea will rise, but broadly speaking, it is inevitable and will harm North Carolina in particular.^[4]

So where does that leave North Carolina?

Well, I am glad you asked. It requires looking at the wild      year of 2012: Warlord Joseph Kony was in every headline, Kim Jong-Un had recently      become the leader of North Korea’s military, and Barack Obama won reelection. But in North Carolina, shielded from the limelight,      the State legislature passed House Bill      819 which amended North Carolina’s Coastal Area Management Act of 1974. The amendment clearly states the legislature’s intent not to mandate a sea-level rise policy or definition and outright bars any action on that front for the next five years.^[5] Lastly, it abandons North Carolina’s local governments to figure out how best to proceed: whether to discuss, plan, or enact policy around sea-     level rise and climate change or hope for the best and ignore the problem.^[6]

As      ridiculous as it is to abandon local governments to establish solutions for a global issue without a fraction of the resources or available help that the state itself could bring to bear, the responses were predictably inconsistent.^[7] Regardless of that inconsistency, within eleven years, even Dare County, one of the wealthiest coastal communities, which previously spent $100 million on beach restoration, cannot afford its continued existence.^[8] That does not even account for the fact that poor counties, like Tyrrell County, feel the impacts faster and are already struggling to account for floodwaters, raise houses above the waterline, or move people to higher ground.^[9]

How to move forward?

At the very least, North Carolina needs to start the conversation and look frankly at the realities in front of them. But in an actionable sense, North Carolina’s Legislature must change its stance on climate change and climate readiness. Further, they need to make available funds at the state level, in conjunction with local communities, or by working with federal programs, like the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Pre-Disaster Mitigation Grant Program. If no more natural solutions are available, or those that would temporarily stall the damage—like putting houses on raised stilts, which is already a common practice on North Carolina’s coast—it might be worth considering relocation.

Relocation, however, comes with its own pitfalls. For one, there is nowhere else to go when the entire community covers every square inch of a sand bar just above the ocean line. Furthermore, it unfairly punishes impoverished communities if the expectation is that they abandon their property. That is not to say that abandonment is the only option; eminent domain exists, as do voluntary buyout programs. However, that comes at a substantial cost that North Carolina likely could not bear alone. Nevertheless, all socioeconomic statuses will feel the pain, and thousands of homes and businesses will be underwater assets dragged out and drowned at sea.^[10]

[1] Peter O’Dowd, In Rodanthe, North Carolina, More Homes      Are at Risk After Another Home Collapses into the Ocean, npr, at 00:25 (Mar. 31, 2023), https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2023/03/31/homes-collapse-ocean-sea-levels.

[2] See Mike Andrews, Debris Stretch 21 Miles After House Collapse in Outer Banks, Officials say, WNCT9 (Mar. 15, 2023), https://www.wnct.com/weather/debris-stretches-21-miles-after-house-collapse-in-outer-banks-officials-say/ (explaining debris stretched for 21 miles); Richard Fausset, Beach Houses on the Outer Banks are Being Swallowed by the Sea, N. Y. Times (May 14, 2022), https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/14/us/outer-banks-beach-houses-collapse.html (explaining that cleanup cost one homeowner $57,000).

[3] See Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability 1963 (Working Grp. II ed.) (2022) (explaining that a one-meter rise in sea level will happen within the next 75 years and resulting in 42% of the Albemarle-Pamlico peninsula underwater); William V. Sweet et al., Global and Regional Sea Level Rise Scenarios for the United States vii (2017) (explaining that NOAA expects sea level rise higher in North Carolina and on the east coast relative to the IPCC’s stated numbers); N.C. Coastal Res. Comm’n Sci. Panel, North Carolina Sea Level Rise Assessment Report 9–10 (2016) (demonstrating the expected impacts of sea level rise at a granular level across North Carolina’s coastline).

[4] See N.C. Coastal Res. Comm’n Sci. Panel supra at 22 (explaining North Carolina will be impacted and that there will be an increased number of flooding events as sea level rises).

[5] Coastal A     rea Management Act of 1974, N.C. Gen. Stat. §113A-107.1 (2022); 2012 N.C. Sess. Laws 202.

[6] Id.

[7] See Caitlin Thompson, North Carolina’s Notorious Climate Change Law—The Rich      Are OK, the Poor Aren’t, .coda (June 29, 2021), https://www.codastory.com/waronscience/climate-change-north-carolina/ (“In the low-lying neighborhood of Goat Neck in Tyrrell County, about 45      minutes from Nags Head, the response to sea level rise has been very different.”).

[8] Keenan Willard, Outer Banks Set for Massive Beach Nourishment Project, WRAL News (Jun. 18, 2021), https://www.wral.com/nearly-100-million-set-to-go-toward-most-expensive-outer-banks-repair-effort-in-dare-county-history/19732917/; see also Peter O’Dowd supra note 1, at 03:08 (“Rodanthe needs [beach renourishment]. Our issue is we don’t have enough money to do another project in Rodanthe.”).

[9] See Caitlin Thompson, supra note 7 (“Many homeowners in Goat Neck don’t have the resources to elevate their houses.”); see also Willard, supra note 8     . (“Tyrell County doesn’t have the money to take on big infrastructure projects that would make neighborhoods like Goat Neck more resilient to climate change.”).

[10] Quick Facts, Beaufort County, North Carolina, Carteret County, North Carolina, Dare County, North Carolina, Hyde County, North Carolina, Tyrrell, County, North Carolina, Washington County, North Carolina, U.S. Census, https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/darecountynorthcarolina,carteretcountynorthcarolina,tyrrellcountynorthcarolina,hydecountynorthcarolina,beaufortcountynorthcarolina,washingtoncountynorthcarolina/INC110221 (last visited,      Nov. 6, 2023) (excluding Currituck, Pender, or other vulnerable counties, potentially ~121,000 housing units across six counties are vulnerable to sea level rise).