Barrier islands

The recent collapse of oceanfront homes in Buxton, N.C., is heartbreaking — but it isn’t surprising. The Outer Banks are barrier islands, not beaches connected to the mainland such as Virginia Beach, and that distinction matters.

Barrier islands are long, narrow sandbars that sit offshore, separated from the mainland by sounds and marshes. They are nature’s shock absorbers — designed to move. Over centuries, these islands slowly migrate southward and landward as wind, waves and storms reshape them. This movement is natural and necessary for their survival.

Rising sea levels and stronger coastal storms are now speeding up that migration, compressing centuries of change into decades. Building permanent homes on constantly shifting land is, quite literally, building on borr

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