CBS News
3 houses have collapsed into the sea within a week in Rodanthe, North Carolina. Here’s why it’s happening.
Three houses, all on the same street, have fallen into the sea in Rodanthe, North Carolina, in less than a week. And officials say the threat of more collapses in the Outer Banks is only growing.
The latest collapse happened on Tuesday, with the National Park Service’s Cape Hatteras National Seashore saying the privately owned house was unoccupied at the time of collapse. While officials said the owner of the home on Kohler Court hired a debris cleanup contractor, people were urged to stay out of the water in the villages of Rodanthe, Waves and Salvo because of “a large amount of hazardous floating debris being transported by the waves.”
“At the north end of Rodanthe and for miles to the south, the Seashore continues to urge visitors to wear hard-soled shoes when walking on the beach to avoid injuries from nail-ridden wooden debris,” the Park Service said in a news release.
National Park Service
Tuesday’s collapse is the third since Friday. On that day, two other unoccupied homes on Kohler Court fell into the sea. The first house to fall that day had caused damage to the other that fell later that evening and “washed out into the ocean before the bulk of it returned to the beach,” officials said.
But these are not the first homes in the area to suddenly be swept up by ocean waves. Two other homes collapsed earlier this year, and five others have collapsed since 2020.
Why are houses falling in Rodanthe, North Carolina?
The oceanfront homes seen along the beaches of the Outer Banks are typically “elevated beach-style homes situated on pilings,” the National Park Service says, and many of them are on properties now partially or fully covered with ocean water “on a regular basis.” Those same properties used to be filled with land, dunes and dry sand, the service said.
“During severe weather events, which the Outer Banks of North Carolina experiences throughout the year, privately-owned oceanfront houses in vulnerable areas get battered by strong winds and large waves, leading to the collapse of nine houses in recent years,” the service said.
Along with the winds and waves, sea level rise has also contributed to the erosion. Parts of the barrier islands along North Carolina have retreated more than 200 feet in the last two years, with the National Park Service reporting that some beaches lose about 13 feet a year.
“It’s wonderful to be out here. It’s pretty,” Jim Hartshorne told CBS News in January 2023 after a viral video showed a house just up the road from his own collapsing into the sea. “But you have to know the ocean’s coming for you.”
Climate change will make all of the factors contributing to these failing structures worse. As global temperatures rise, largely driven by the burning of fossil fuels, it will cause more glacial melt and raise ocean temperatures, the latter of which helps fuel extreme weather events.
CBS News
Russia helps Syria launch strikes after rebel fighters seize control of major city of Aleppo
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
Washington — Congress returns this week from a Thanksgiving recess with a number of priorities to get through before the end of the year, while a deadline to fund the government looms over lawmakers.
With the new Congress set to be sworn in on Jan. 3, lawmakers are pushing through a list of to-dos in the coming weeks in the lame-duck session, while Republicans gear up for leadership in Washington next year.
But first, Congress must address government funding, since lawmakers only have until Dec. 20 to fund the government. And although a shutdown remains unlikely, leaders will need to reach an agreement on a short term funding measure in the weeks ahead.
Funding the government
In September, lawmakers approved a continuing resolution to keep the government funded through Dec. 20, setting a pre-holiday deadline to prevent a shutdown that has become commonplace for Congress. With frustration among some conservatives over the practice, House Speaker Mike Johnson made clear at the time that he opposed an omnibus package to fund the government, suggesting that the House would work to approve the 12 full-year spending bills individually after the election. But the favorable results for Republicans in the 2024 elections appeared to change the calculus.
Republicans appear likely to push to punt the deadline into the early days of President-elect Donald Trump’s administration, though the exact timeline for the stopgap measure remains a key question. The deadline will tee up a larger fight over government spending, with Republicans set to control the House, Senate and the White House — and looking to make significant spending cuts while juggling the extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts.
Lawmakers also have disaster aid to consider after the Biden administration requested $98 billion in aid to address the aftermath of Hurricanes Milton and Helene in the southeast.
The funding fight comes as Johnson is looking to hold onto his gavel in the new year, with a narrow House majority that’s proven problematic for Republicans seeking the speakership in recent years. Republicans have already selected Johnson to be their nominee for speaker in January, and the full House will elect a speaker when lawmakers are sworn in next month.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Senate Republicans meet with Trump’s administration picks
Senate Republicans are expected to continue meeting with Trump’s picks for top posts in his administration this week, looking to secure support in the upper chamber, which has the role of confirming the intended nominees.
Ahead of their recess, Senate Republicans met with Trump picks including Pete Hegseth and former Rep. Matt Gaetz, who then opted to withdraw his name from consideration for Attorney General following intense scrutiny over a House Ethics Committee investigation into alleged sexual misconduct and illicit drug use. On Monday, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa is set to meet with former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who Trump tapped for Attorney General after Gaetz withdrew.
Trump has continued to announce his picks for the top posts, including Kash Patel, a 44-year-old who served in intelligence and defense roles in Trump’s first term and has a reputation as a controversial figure, for FBI director. The announcement came as Trump-nominated Christopher Wray’s term isn’t set to expire until 2027.
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who Trump tapped to lead the newly coined Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE, will also be on Capitol Hill this week, meeting Thursday with Senate and House Republicans.
House Ethics Committee meets to consider Gaetz report
The House Ethics Committee is set to meet Thursday to further consider whether to release the report about its investigation into Gaetz, after the evenly split bipartisan panel failed to reach an agreement in an hourslong meeting last month.
A day later, Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration, further complicating the ethics committee’s decision about whether to release the report. Gaetz’ resignation from the House after his selection for attorney general had ended the committee’s jurisdiction over him, making the release of the report all the more controversial. The Republican committee chairmen said he voted against the release of the report over the jurisdiction issue.
Still, some view the report’s release as essential if Gaetz is eyeing other offices, like another post within Trump’s administration or running for Florida governor down the road.
The ethics committee’s investigation first began in 2021, but was put on pause as the Justice Department conducted a sex trafficking and obstruction probe of Gaetz. Last year, the Ethics Committee resumed its work, after the DOJ declined to charge Gaetz, who has denied all wrongdoing.
Senate Democrats hold leadership elections
Senate Democrats, who will be in the minority in the new Congress, are expected to meet Tuesday to elect their leadership for the next two years, after Republicans flipped the chamber in the 2024 elections.
Though the top posts in Democratic leadership are expected to remain unchanged, with Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and whip Dick Durbin seeking to remain in their roles, the no. 3 post is up for grabs as Sen. Debbie Stabenow set to retire.
Stabenow, who is leaving the Senate after more than two decades, chairs the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee. The post has been eyed by Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota.
The leadership races come as Senate Democrats are making a final push on their agenda, with a focus on confirming President Biden’s remaining nominees to the nation’s courts. Democrats are hoping to meet or surpass Trump’s 234 judicial confirmations from his first term during the lame-duck session, but have run into resistance from Republicans looking to hold up and drag out the process.