House spectacularly collapses into the sea in North Carolina

Much like a foolish man who heareth the sayings of Jesus but not doeth, many a foolish North Carolina man has built his house upon the sand. Recently, the inevitable started happening. Spectacular footage shows the collapse of one such unoccupied beachfront home in Rodanthe on the island of Hatteras during a storm, with shocked onlookers powerless to prevent it. Such collapses have become a common occurrence, with two neighboring houses collapsing in Rodanthe on Friday, and another house filmed collapsing in August. Ten houses have collapsed so far this decade in Rodanthe alone.

So why are all these houses collapsing? Well, it turns out you shouldn’t try and build a house on the sea. The soft sand of the beach has been eroded over the years, including the dunes and banks that normally protect the houses’ struts and foundations. Those small piles of sand did not, in fact, hold back the sea forever. This particular house was built in 1998, and was once valued at $450,000. Now, the owner is having to hire a cleanup company to rid the beach of debris. Debris that has become so overwhelming that the local government has begun buying houses just so it can demolish them itself.