Another oceanfront home collapsed into the Atlantic Ocean Tuesday night in Buxton, scattering debris across the beach and forcing closures along part of Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

The collapse marks the 20th oceanfront home to fall into the ocean in Buxton since September 2025, cementing the village's place as the epicenter of North Carolina's coastal erosion crisis.

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The unoccupied blue house at 46000 Ocean Drive had been identified as one of the area's most vulnerable structures. Dare County leaders had been working to acquire the property before it collapsed because it sat directly in the planned path of a new dune line tied to a major beach nourishment project expected to begin later this month.

Collapsed homes create significant environmental and public safety concerns, sending wood, insulation, nails and other debris into the surf while triggering costly cleanup efforts.

Following the collapse, Cape Hatteras National Seashore urged visitors to avoid the beach from the Village of Buxton south to Cape Point.

"Varying amounts of hazardous large and small debris litter the beach to the south of the collapse site," the National Park Service said in a statement. Due to safety concerns, beach access from the north end of Buxton through the lifeguarded beach area was temporarily closed while park rangers assessed conditions.

The collapse comes as local officials, contractors and homeowners scramble to stay ahead of a rapidly changing shoreline.

Some homeowners have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars moving houses farther inland. Others have run out of options.

Last month, crews with Crum Works Inc. rolled a 141-ton oceanfront home roughly 300 feet away from the surf along Old Lighthouse Road. The house became one of several relocated from a stretch of shoreline where the ocean has steadily crept closer.

For Barry Crum, who has moved homes on Hatteras Island since 2008, the past year has felt different.

"It was like triage," Crum said.

Back-to-back storms last fall accelerated erosion along parts of Buxton's shoreline, leaving contractors trying to prioritize which homes could be saved first.

"The destruction is not new, but what is new or different is the scale," Crum said. "I never would have envisioned this happening."

The pace of collapse has stunned even longtime visitors.

Richard Moses has vacationed in Buxton for roughly 60 years. He remembers wider beaches, fewer houses and a very different coastline.

"It was horrible seeing these homes falling into the water," Moses said.

Scientists say Buxton offers a glimpse into challenges many coastal communities may face in the coming decades.

"Buxton has become kind of a poster child of coastal change," said Reide Corbett, executive director of the Coastal Studies Institute.

Federal tide-gauge data near Buxton shows relative sea levels have risen about 8 inches during the past 30 years. Corbett said decades of erosion, rising seas, storms and development on a naturally shifting barrier island have collided along this stretch of coast.

The recent collapses have come in waves. Four homes fell into the ocean during a powerful February storm that brought high tides and wind gusts approaching 60 mph. In October, five homes collapsed in a single day.

County leaders hope a major beach nourishment project will buy time.

Dare County plans to pump roughly 2 million cubic yards of sand onto about 3 miles of Buxton shoreline beginning in mid-June, weather permitting. County commissioners recently expanded the project after officials said they expect roughly $30.4 million in FEMA reimbursement tied to storm-related erosion damage.

The Buxton portion of the project is expected to cost about $42.2 million.

The work also includes construction of a new dune line and repairs to a deteriorating groin near the former Cape Hatteras Lighthouse site.

Corbett said beach nourishment can widen beaches and reduce immediate risk, but it does not stop erosion.

Hurricane season began June 1. Forecasters predict a less active Atlantic season than recent years, but even distant storms can generate powerful waves, high surf and rapid erosion along the Outer Banks.

For residents of Buxton, the latest collapse serves as another reminder that the ocean is still moving closer.