A video showing two beach houses collapsing into the North Carolina waves has been shared on social media.
U.S. National Park Service officials announced on Tuesday that the unoccupied homes - located along Ocean Drive in the Outer Banks community of Rodanthe - had slid into the ocean.
The Washington Post reports that the houses fell after being battered by a low-intensity but relentless slow-moving storm for several days.
Debris from one of the fallen buildings - worth around $381,200 according to Zillow - has already spread widely, being carried along the coast by the tides. Cape Hatteras National Seashore officials are working closely with the homeowner to organize a cleanup operation, while the local area around the houses is cordoned off by National Park Service workers.
This is the third time a house in the Rodanthe area has collapsed into the ocean this year. In February, another home on the same stretch of coast fell into the surf, which carried its debris up to 15 miles away per federal officials.
Check out the alarming video below:Superintendent of National Parks of Eastern North Carolina David Hallac said in a statement that they predicted more homes could face a similar fate.
"Unfortunately, there may be more houses that collapse onto Seashore beaches in the near future," Hallac said per ABC News.
He went on to urge homeowners to take preventative action, saying: "We proactively reached out to homeowners along Ocean Drive in Rodanthe after the first house collapse and recommended that actions be taken to prevent collapse and impacts to Cape Hatteras National Seashore."
Coastlines in the Outer Banks are particularly vulnerable to erosion and changes in sea level, meaning the hundreds of vacation homes built along the seafront are at high risk.
According to William Sweet (a sea-level expert at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), water levels in the area have risen about an inch every five years in recent times.
"Higher seas allow waves to attack higher elevations and expose land that is typically not exposed to these types of events," said Sweet, adding" These storms have been chipping away over the last years and decades."
