🚨#BREAKING: Five beachfront homes have just COLLAPSED into the ocean in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

@matt_vanswol Am I the only one who would never set foot in a house built over the water like that?

@matt_vanswol We are here now. This is on our street. There’s about 10 more houses in danger. Tomorrow will have the biggest waves from these storms.

@matt_vanswol I'm sorry, but building houses on sticks on the beach just isn't common sense. It could easily be avoided and then the rest of us don't end up with home insurance going through the roof.

@matt_vanswol the Outer Banks are shifting sand islands . . . they protect the mainland from high waves. It doesn't take an engineering genius to understand if you build on a temporary island, that yes, you may very likely have your house fall into the water.

@matt_vanswol I saw a special by John Stossel years' back on the stupidity of the federal government continually bailing out ppl that build their homes in high-risk places like this with FEMA funds, low interest loans, etc. Using taxpayer $$ to subsidize the lower rates, of course!

@matt_vanswol Sorry, but you just don't build houses on sand.

@matt_vanswol Don’t build on a sand bar. This problem is decades old. Yet they keep rebuilding

@matt_vanswol It is an unfortunate reality of coastline erosion; those houses were originally built at least 100 yards from the beach. The OBX are too far out for beach replenishment to be cost-effective (like it has been for multiple areas along the NC mainland). This didn't happen overnight

@matt_vanswol If you must build on the beach, build a steel reinforced concrete dome home. I mean, stick-built in high wind-high hurricane areas is just not strong enough. I'm sorry for their loss, but you have to build for your environment.

@matt_vanswol

I had a friend who's family had a summer SHACK on the outer banks. The family had maintained a SHACK for over 100 years. It was a SHACK because about every 10 years a hurricane came and cleaned all the buildings off the beach. So they would put up a new one. Times and Hurricanes don't change, but stupid gets worse every year.

@matt_vanswol Never made sense to me to build a house on stilts on the beach in an area prone to hurricanes Then again, i live above ground in tornado alley so who am i to judge

@matt_vanswol @milove131 Those rugged Outer Banks of North Carolina are so beautiful and such a vivid reminder of the power of the ocean and wind. They’ve been reshaped by storms all of my life and long before that. Those beautiful homes in Rodanthe were beautiful.

@matt_vanswol Maybe ppl should stop building houses on a sliver of land.

@matt_vanswol Pretty sure there's something in the Bible about not building your house on the sand.

After super storm sandy FEMA redrew the flood maps. My parents live on a hill in Arkansas yet the new map forces them to buy flood insurance. They didn’t even know until they went to refi and bank told them. 200$ a month for 20 years. (Over half the value of the property!)They lived as good responsible citizens and even had four children join military. Meanwhile greedy developers build homes in the path of a hurricane. No flooding insurance required and FEMA will cover their losses. If my parents house under Water so are five different states. So corrupt. So frustrating.

@matt_vanswol Sorry, no sympathy. Houses don't belong on beaches.

@matt_vanswol I'm going to go out on a limb here and say "Don't build your house in the sand directly next the tides of the ocean ?"

@matt_vanswol The barrier island land development was one of the greatest real estate scams in history. The islands migrate west at a rate of 50 miles per 20000 years, or about 10ft per years.

@matt_vanswol One of my leftist thoughts.... I've often wondered why all coastal property in NC isn't state or federal public parkland... the banks are meant to move naturally and buffer the inland.

@matt_vanswol No one and I mean no one feels sorry for folks who are dumb enough to build homes right on the ocean. It’s riverboat gambling.

@matt_vanswol Folks should research before you post ignorant comments about building on the water! I live there and those houses had at least 100 yards of beach and dunes protecting them before 50 years of erosion ate it away.

@matt_vanswol Humberto and Imelda off the coast of North Carolina on MyRadar right now.

@matt_vanswol My son’s beach house is in this picture. Taken looking inland from your picture.

@matt_vanswol These were already condemned homes. Sadly insurance doesn't pay until they collapse although they are trying to change that here in NC.

@matt_vanswol This will be blamed on “Climate Change”, not on people stupid enough to build homes where they are not supposed to.

Pro tip don't build houses on stilts. If they cannot have a solid foundation then shouldn't be zoned to build there. They all just caused everyone else's insurance rates to go up by building & living in areas that periodically get wiped out by Mother Nature who, though is not evil, is relentless.

@matt_vanswol Why do people constantly build in places like this? How long does it take to understand it’s a bad idea ffs.

@matt_vanswol Absolutely terrible... Lemme guess. Regulations on coastal properties prevented home owners from strengthening their home's resilience against erosion, flooding and wind along the coast.

@matt_vanswol Maybe you shouldn’t build that close to the beach

@matt_vanswol No reason, except money, those houses could not be dissembled, recycled or moved before this happened AGAIN!!. Homeowners should bear the cost of cleanup, or the banks that own them. they could float houses across Diamond Shoals in 1900.

@matt_vanswol They built their house upon the sand

@matt_vanswol Don't build your house on the sandy land. Don't build it too near the shore. Yes, it might look kinda nice but you'll have to build it twice; yes, you'll have to build your house once more...

@matt_vanswol @CarolCo81100122 A wise man builds his house upon a rock.

@matt_vanswol NC had been getting hit hard the last couple of years.