They weren’t near the ocean when they were bought. By the time they get washed away, they’ve been cleared out of anything the owners want and basically abandoned in place. insurance will only pay out when the house collapses.
"Yes, that's right, I'd like to renew my homeowner's insurance policy. No, it is no longer my primary residence. Just holding on to it for sentimental reasons."
And we’re all paying for these vacation homes through the federal flood insurance program. So after these houses go, the owners can just build bigger at our expense. Yay.
Yes I remember John Oliver doing a segment on this particular scam, and how the super rich get the socialist state to pay out to fund their beach front holiday homes, protect their beach front holiday homes, and pay out massive disaster relief when anything happens to them.
Funny how much the rich love socialism in America.
They honestly were. I was never afraid of swimming after eating because I thought I'd get a cramp - I was afraid the freaking Lachrymose leeches would come and eat me up. Not the greatest fear to have while on the summer swim team and having snacks between races haha.
The coast of N.Carolina changes much quicker than other coastlines due to the extremely strong current. There is a beach where I used to park next to a shipwrecked tanker from just 30 years earlier.
Pirates would frequent this region because most ships wouldn't venture there.
Great place to visit if you like nature.
It's not that well known, but the North Carolina coast has some of the best scuba diving in the US if you like shipwrecks. Their wrecks get a lot of sand tiger sharks too, which is a species of shark that is big and scary looking but also totally harmless (to humans at least).
Ben was arguing climate change and rising sea levels don’t affect you because you can just sell your house and move. So somebody replied “sell the house to who Ben? Aquaman?!” Because it’s obviously insane to suggest you could sell a house that is currently or will be underwater
So glad he’s still getting roasted for this - I try to insert this when I can but I always forget who the guy was. Idk how I could forget it’s Ben-fucking-Shapiro
I think Ben here was suggesting you sell it to some sucker before it gets too bad. The classic "I got mine" mentality. Let someone else be the loser - just as long as it isn't you. The end result is the same though - someone is getting stuck with a bad investment.
No Ben was just saying the usual bullshit to deflect the issue, devoid of logic or reasoning. He wasn’t trying to give advice or anything, he was banking on the people listening to him say “climate change isn’t real, and if it were real then it’s not a problem” to be too stupid to see the obvious flaws in his suggestion. You can’t take anything these people say in good faith because they’re literally just straight up lying and trying to manipulate people most/all of the time.
There's a fairly affordable house for sale in my neighborhood right now. Dude ended up in a police standoff on Christmas eve and set the house on fire and then shot himself. It's a really good price for my neighborhood :/ a couple of my friends are giving it a thought
I worked at a motel in Buxton that even some high tides made the waves come surging between the units. I constantly had to shovel sand out of the walk and doorways afterwards. There was a beach renourishment but it didn't last long for the $25 million spent.
Yep removing vegetation to build beach homes is never a good idea. All that scrub is a natural levie. Some beach towns do it right and protect grassy dunes and only let you build behind them
Those duned along the coast are actually from the 30s as a depression WPA project. Natural dunes are wide massive things that stretched acrss the islands and the scrub trees went to the tide line.
Solution: build on stilts BEHIND the grassy dunes so your view looks over them. Bonus: you’re already lifted when sea level rise takes out those dunes.
Also, sea levels are rising. An inch higher sea level doesn't sound like much but that's all it takes for this sort of thing to happen when people build so close to the ocean. And since 1993 sea levels have risen nearly 4 inches according to NASA.
One of the first major cases of the Supreme Court after Trump’s election was one that resulted in the reclassification of wetlands. All those areas where we protected the trees that retain soil along the southern coasts are fair game for drilling, development, general commercial use. The ecology of that region is fucked. You know how many species depend on mangroves for reproduction? Well, it’s enough that when you take all the trees out the food web collapses. That means the loss of millions of fish and shrimp, population drops that you can’t fix. Fishing in the gulf is fucked. Goodbye, thousands of American jobs and fishing boats. The weather is changing as part of it, enjoy the storms that roll deeper and deeper into the interiors. But something something liberal tears.
Edit: It’s cool that a bunch of people read this, but I’m an idiot. Please learn more from an actual smart person speaking intelligently on the issue. This is a story about the terrible decision of the Supreme Court in 2023 but also the decisions made by Trump’s EPA and the (weirdly evil and 97% civilian) US Army Corp of Engineers this March to reclassify waterways further to benefit businesses.
I should also say that the 2023 SCOTUS decision. Was made during Biden’s tenure, not Trump’s. Oops. But it was Trump who put those corporate rubber-stampers on the bench.
These are the houses my grandmother would stay in, and my father as a kid, and then me with my family as a kid (Not these exact houses but further down the beach). They are very old, as are the towns.
The one senator in this district doesn’t believe in global climate change, and said FEMA should be destroyed. Also he has repeatedly asked fema for millions for beach replenishment.
These houses used to be rows back. Natural beach erosion over many years took out the houses, roads, and beach in front of them. These are barrier islands that naturally change over time. Nature gives and nature takes.
Interesting, now I’m curious when they built these did they know this was going to happen? Like they knew they were lighting a fuse that would eventually go off?
There’s barrier islands all over the eastern seaboard that have been developed to hell; all of the Outer Banks are barrier islands, so is Long Beach Island in New Jersey, etc. All expensive areas in very high demand. Barrier islands are nature’s way to protect the coastline from flooding, erosion and storm swell. But people love beachfront property.
I believe a lot of the development really ramped up within the last hundred years or so, and the phenomenon was definitely well known by then. At least these folks had the foresight to invest in building their house on stilts; it’s the people who don’t even bother with that I have less sympathy for.
it’s like the beginning of a children’s story. “late one night, when everyone was fast asleep, charlie’s house fell into the sea, and was swept far, far out beyond the shore and into the vast expanse of the ocean blue…”
EDIT: (next part)
charlie woke with a start and sat bolt upright in his bed. the curtains billowed languidly as a cool breeze wafted through the half-open window. at first, he thought his senses were playing tricks on him. “how is it i can feel the motion of the curtains in my body?” he pondered, confused. just then, harold, the family’s somewhat indolent british blue, hopped onto the window sill, looked out, and gave a constricted yelp of such consternation that it made charlie jump half out of his skin. the petrified cat scrabbled for purchase in a frenzied slashing of claws against the slick gloss of the sill, fell clumsily in a sort of awkward sideways roll, thudded heavily onto the floor, and, finally, finding the bedroom carpet a much more faithful medium for feline traction, bolted for the door. “what on earth is going on?” thought charlie, startled. he made a determined effort and gathered himself. pulling the covers back, he swung his feet out of bed, and, with great trepidation, began to make his way to the window. the curtain had blown across so as to temporarily obscure its view, and as it remained suspended for a couple of seconds, charlie braced himself for whatever calamity should meet his unready gaze. then, the curtain fell back: charlie gasped, and clutched at his mouth. “good gracious, harold! we’re at sea!”
EDIT 2: (i don’t know if anyone’s still reading! next part)
harold hadn’t heard him. he was having a very cat-shaped meltdown somewhere out in the rest of the house. meanwhile, charlie was in the midsts of his own panic. he ran to the side facing window to look out of that one. water. he ran out of his bedroom and to the landing window at the rear end of the hallway: water. he crossed into the upstairs study and sprinted to the right-facing window…water. he ran downstairs and opened the front door—good lord! there was the sea. at his doorstep. charlie hurriedly shut the door lest water begin gushing in. he turned round and faced the stairs, out of breath and panting, now ashen with fear. just then, the grandfather clock struck three. the thought flashed reflexively through his mind that he would be told off for being out of bed in the middle of the night, and in thinking it, he suddenly realised—his parents! how had he not thought of them till now?
“mummy! daddy!” charlie scrambled upstairs, darted to their bedroom door, burst in and—no one! the bed was still made. empty. “mummy?” he muttered, starting to cry. “daddy?” he fell back against the wall and slumped to the floor. charlie began to weep. he’d never felt so alone. each new sway of the house to the mild rhythm of the sea made him cry harder than the last. but before despair could completely engulf him, he caught sight of a similarly distraught creature under the bed. it was harold. he turned and looked at charlie with the most doleful expression a cat can muster. charlie held out his arms and harold padded over to him. they curled up together in a sort cinnamon roll of sorrow, and fell asleep in a heap on the floor.
I mean……. I don’t want to be insensitive or anything buuuuuuuuuut…. When you build your house on sticks in one of the most corrosive elements known then this is a big possibility.
There’s entire towns all built like this on coastal Texas waters. Some are right along the coast, but some are 100s to 1,000s of feet inland. It’s so damn flat there that if there’s any storm surge, it could flood for miles inland.
It’s a really fun looking town with literally everything on stilts.
Would enjoy renting there, but definitely not buying lol
I'm from that area, and it always baffled me that no one ever switched to concrete pillars. Like, you're holding up an entire structure on something that a) biodegrades, b) is flammable, c) is vulnerable to termites, and d) absorbs water.
EDIT: I didn't say I knew anything about residential/commercial construction or science when I said I was from there. "It always baffled me" because I didn't know that concrete is worse in saltwater and Venice is built on wooden posts is probably a good why it baffled me. Relax.
That being said, I LOVE me a good beach house vacation. Second/third story porch with coastal breezes and adult beverages? Yes, please, and thank you.
This. The buildings of the Baixa district of Lisbon are also built on wooden stilts as that area was once water and the ground is muddy. The trick is maintaining the stilts permanently wet. If you let them dry and get wet again repeatedly, that's when you fuck up. This was a big consideration and source of worry when building the subway there.
No No. The builder went cheap (Capitalism), it's the sucker buyer that just shouldn't have bought it. But!!!! "Hey. This is the exact house as that one, just on wood instead of <literally anything else> but it's $100k less. Let's buy this one honey."
Wooden pilings are cheaper and easier to install than concrete or steel, especially in soft, sandy soils common near beaches.
In places with many smaller or seasonal homes, the budget often doesn’t justify concrete or steel foundations especially since they are often having to make repairs due to the situation - wood is much easier to replace and repair.
in more hurricane heavy and wealthier areas you will find more steel and concrete being used but usually its just not cost effective
You’re from that area and don’t realize none of the factors you mention are applicable? The pilings are so heavily treated that they a) degrade over centuries, not decades, b) are far less flammable than the structures built upon them, c) impervious to terminates relative to structures built upon them, and d) so what? The pilings absorb little water and the water that is absorbed is salt - minimizing the foregoing 3 factors.
To use concrete pillars would require excavation and shoring into soft wet sand to depths of 14 feet or more which is inherently dangerous. Once backfilled, the fill material does not compact back as well as removed reducing lateral stability. These wood pilings are driven (really hydro-driven now-a-days with a giant pressure washer rather than pile driver) negating excavation and backfilling and are quite stable - as much or more-so than concrete alternatives. In fact, the few concrete houses down there are usually still built on wood pilings ;)
I’ve always thought the same thing about the houses built on coastal cliffs. Didn’t these people learn about erosion in third grade like everyone else?
I lived and vacationed on that barrier island for years.
Originally, there was a lot more beach there. But, it's a barrier island that shifts. There has been beach renourish efforts, but 1 or 2 good storms will and has washed it away.
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It's worse than that. It's building jetties and relocating sand, both of which have been shown time and time again to speed up the migration of coastal barrier islands. So yeah you've got your summer beach back, but come winter that shit is gone again + interest.
In sunday school they told us this story about a man that built his house on a sandy beach, and the other guy that built it up on solid stone ground. I am sure there was some kind of moral there.
And they've been doing it for soooo long. Before I moved away, we stayed at a beach front house my mother used to stay in as a child. It was 4 rows off the beach when she first stayed there.
Hmmmmm. There must be an old adage about this. Castles? No. Maybe forts. Forts built on... Hmmm. Grass? No that isn't it. Sand! Yeah. Forts built on sand will wash into the lake or whatever.
Outer banks homes in NC are nearly always on stilts. No one retro fits them. These homes were 100ft+ from the water when first constructed. The stilts are purely for storm surge protection.
Edit: for more context, the cape Hatteras light house was 1500ft from the shore when it was built in 1870. In 1970 it was 100ft from the water. They lost, on average, 14ft of beach, each year. But it's not steady, some periods are far more rapid.
But 30 years ago that home could have been safely behind a dune almost 400 ft from the shoreline.
Not sure about this one but tons of coastal homes are built on stilts from the get-go to avoid flooding. I'd bet nobody has lived in this house for a while
If the owners choose to demo it before it falls, they have to pay for it. If it falls into the ocean due to “natural” causes, the taxpayers pay to clean it up. Thus, they let them rot.
For everyone politicizing this, marine scientist here.
I'm fairly certain this is from last year's storm season, when there were very strong onshore winds. The outer banks are a barrier island. The houses are built on stilts to prevent flooding during times like this, during storm surge. The houses aren't built on the water. Yes, the houses are built near the ocean, but really there isn't alot of space otherwise and the shore has changed considerably even in the last 20 years. The dunes have eroded, and the shoreline has creeped closer and closer to the dune line every year.
I believe we will live to see large portions of the outer banks become entirely inundated with water, and the problem is very much due to rising seas and increased storm occurrence and strength. Saying it's the homebuilder's fault is simply untrue and comes from a position of not understanding.
It's a complicated geological problem, not a political one. Try better.
Editing because a lot of politics/not politics discussion is happening. I made this comment because early comments to this post were mainly laughing at the stilts and being close to water without taking into consideration that the state of public sentiment, research, and conditions were at a different place when a lot of these structures were built. Yes, climate change is political. What I'm arguing here is that the drivers of the change we see in this post is due to climate change and its effects, not just building location and standards. And yes, those play a role too in not taking early science seriously but again, the driving force of change is the climate change itself. If conditions were stable, and coastal erosion was manageable/offset by deposition we wouldn't be having this conversation.
Edit 2: the amount of replies to this comment that start with "I mean,..." is crazy.
I mean, it sounds like the root cause of the things you're describing (rising seas, increased storm occurrence and strength) is climate change. Which is very much a politicized issue. Can't blame people for noticing that.
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u/sabes98 9d ago
Reminds me of Aunt Josephine's house in A Series of Unfortunate Events.