When Dr. Scott Twentyman and Cindy Doughty of Rodanthe, NC , bought their three-story beach house in 2002, extreme weather and beach erosion weren’t issues they worried about.

“It wasn’t on our radar at the time,” Twentyman tells Realtor.com® . “We never even thought of it.”

But over time, Rodanthe eroded nearly 13 feet per year , according to some estimates, ultimately putting the couple’s dream home at risk. So, they had to move—but they weren’t going without their house!

The perfect storm

Twentyman and Doughty saw several of their neighbors’ houses fall into the Atlantic Ocean back in 2019, when the Outer Banks was hit by three nor’easters in a row, including Hurricane Dorian.

“When one of the houses went down, one of the neighbor’s pilings crashed down through our back

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