Media Dishonestly Blames Rising Sea Levels for Houses Lost to Surf in North Carolina’s Outer Banks

A few weeks ago, several beach houses on Hatteras Island in North Carolina were destroyed by encroaching ocean waters. As reported by the Washington Post, “It happened again. And again. And again. Three more homes along North Carolina’s Outer Banks collapsed into the sea overnight Sunday and into Monday morning, bringing the total to four since a winter storm over the weekend battered the barrier islands with snow, high winds and roiling surf.”

Dating back to September 2025, when a couple of offshore hurricanes passed by, nineteen homes on the Outer Banks have been lost to the surf. While the immediate cause in all cases was tidal surge related to storms, the underlying cause is the shifting sands of an island in motion. What is not happening is “rising sea levels,” nor anything related to climate change. But you would never know it from the media’s reporting. (RELATED: The Welcome Demise of Climate Change Catastrophism)

The legacy media, which habitually twists weather-related news into climate catastrophism, has been extraordinarily dishonest in its coverage of these lost beach houses, repeatedly stating that they were consumed by rising sea levels, when that is completely untrue. The houses were lost due to the impermanent sand upon which they were built. (RELATED: EPA Retires Its Crystal Ball, Lets America Exhale (Carbon Included))

Here are a few examples of the dishonest reporting:

From the Associated Press, dated Oct. 1, 2025: “Six homes collapse into the Outer Banks surf as Atlantic hurricanes swirl far offshore.”

Six unoccupied houses along North Carolina’s Outer Banks have collapsed into the ocean as Hurricanes Humberto and Imelda rumble in the Atlantic, the latest private beachfront structures to fall as sea levels rise due to global warming.

The AP piece also included this untruth:

North Carolina’s coast is made up almost entirely of narrow, low-lying barrier islands that have been eroding for years as rising seas swallow the land. Eighteen privately owned houses have now collapsed on Seashore beaches since 2020, the park service said.

From NBC, also on October 1: “Six homes collapse into Atlantic Ocean in Outer Banks.”

Six homes have crumbled into the ocean, after they were lashed by waves and wind from Hurricanes Humberto and Imelda. 18 homes have collapsed into the ocean in the Outer Banks since 2020 due to storms, erosion and rising sea levels.

What is even worse about this erroneous reporting is that these scientifically illiterate journalists undoubtedly believe they are reporting the truth. Their reporting repeats the propaganda of climate catastrophists, who have supplanted actual science with the pseudo-science of global warming. (RELATED: Two Retractions Raise the Question: Is Climate Science Really Settled?)

The simple truth is that the Outer Banks are barrier islands, which are effectively sandbars that separate the mainland from the open ocean. Barrier islands are deposits of sand that are constantly reshaped due to tides, winds, and storms. The news accounts make it seem like the Outer Banks are the crest of a permanent land mass being consumed by the rising sea, but that is simply not true.

There is a term for the natural force that causes barrier islands to constantly reshape and move parallel to the mainland – that term is “longshore drift.”   

From NOAA’s website, “Longshore drift may also create or destroy entire barrier islands along a shoreline. A barrier island is a long offshore deposit of sand situated parallel to the coast. As longshore drifts deposit, remove, and redeposit sand, barrier islands constantly change.”

The constant pounding of waves upon a barrier island does not occur in a manner that is perpendicular to the beach. Instead, waves hit the beach at an angle, driven ashore by the direction of prevailing winds. As the waves come ashore, they wash up sand and sediment. But as the water recedes back to the ocean, it is now depleted of its wind-borne energy. The water, along with the sediment it brought with it, returns to the sea by gravity at a perpendicular angle. The result is that with each wave, a little bit of sediment is moved downwind, slowly reshaping the island, expanding it in one direction, and eroding it in another.

Although jetties and seawalls can be built to stabilize certain portions of barrier islands, these do not tame the sea. Instead, they just redirect currents such that certain areas on the island are eroded while others receive sand deposits. 

An example of how dramatically longshore drift can move barrier islands is the lighthouse that once served as a navigation beacon to the Aransas Pass, near Corpus Christi, TX. The Lydia Ann Lighthouse, also known as the Aransas Pass Light Station, is a beautiful, restored lighthouse that originally went into service in 1857. It is a popular destination for those who enjoy outdoor activities such as fishing and birding, but many a visitor has also wondered why there is a lighthouse here, about a mile north of the actual Aransas Pass. The reason is that the natural pass migrated south. When the lighthouse was built, its purpose was to guide ships from the Gulf of Mexico into the pass between Mustang Island (Port Aransas) to the south and San Jose Island to the north. An inbound ship could follow the beacon light right into the Aransas Pass. Due to longshore drift, both San Jose Island and Mustang Island crept southward, with the pass moving south with them. The aerial map view below shows the lighthouse, which has remained in place, in relation to the Aransas Pass.

Media reports regarding houses in the Outer Banks being lost to “rising sea levels” are absolutely, scientifically false. It is worth remembering that if the media has such a cavalier indifference to the truth as it pushes climate propaganda with this story, the media deserves no respect or credibility for any other climate scare it promotes. Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus.

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