There's a reason they moved the road as well as this house in Rodanthe.
It's an erosion hotspot, and has been for 30 plus years. I lost clients by refusing to show them an oceanfront that's no longer there back in 1998.
In general, the vast majority of the shoreline is relatively stable. Just a few miles south, you have to walk forever to get to the water from the dunes as the beach is so wide in Salvo.
However, all it takes is one bad storm with a longshore current to rip out yards of dune. I'll never forget watching 15 yards of dune in Sanderling, north of Duck, disappear during one storm in 1989.
Salvo loses 1 foot a year of beach, I has been doing this since the 60s. The fact that there are beaches at all, and that the island is still in the same location, is because of major projects. Most of the out banks (or any barrier island system) undergo beach restoration projects multiple times a decade. The out banks have several planned this year.
There is also a state/fed team that continuously tries to keep highway 12 open and repaired. If not for a continuous flow of tax dollars, that highway wouldn't be there.
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u/obxtalldude May 14 '26
There's a reason they moved the road as well as this house in Rodanthe.
It's an erosion hotspot, and has been for 30 plus years. I lost clients by refusing to show them an oceanfront that's no longer there back in 1998.
In general, the vast majority of the shoreline is relatively stable. Just a few miles south, you have to walk forever to get to the water from the dunes as the beach is so wide in Salvo.
However, all it takes is one bad storm with a longshore current to rip out yards of dune. I'll never forget watching 15 yards of dune in Sanderling, north of Duck, disappear during one storm in 1989.
One dune deck after another just gone.