RODANTHE, N.C. — Homeowners of precarious oceanfront structures in Rodanthe have been encouraged to move their houses before they are taken by the sea.
Proactive residents have begun the process to get their house moved — however, some claimed that paperwork and bureaucratic red tape has slowed this effort down. Like Betty Jane Saylor, whose home sustained damage during Hurricane Erin's brush past the East Coast.
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"I want people to know it's not the homeowner's fault these houses are falling in. It's the federal government and CAMA, they're taking too long with all this paperwork," Saylor said.
Saylor has owned her Rodanthe home since 2014. She started the process to have it moved back in late 2024 — expecting it to take just a few months.
“We lost the whole rental season over this," she said.
On top of the wait, the Saylor family had to watch as Hurricane Erin left her mark.
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"She totally destroyed the whole bottom. I have pictures of what the pool looked like. We now know longer have a pool. Took the fence down. It took our hot tub," Saylor said.
The Saylors want to move their home back as far as possible. The Division of Coastal Management told News 3 that because the Saylors wanted to move it to an area that would require filling in wetlands, it triggered the Coastal Area Management Act and a major permit process followed. This procedure involves the United States Army Corps of Engineers, other state agencies, and local government because of the potential presence of wetlands where the house is expected to be moved.
"All we want to do is move it back 350 feet off our land. And we had to fight the government even get it back that far," Saylor said.
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DCM confirmed that they marked the application as complete by their agency in mid-May and then sent it to USACE for final approval. The final approval didn’t come until Aug. 25. USACE said a typical review process takes about 60 days but there can be delays. The three-month wait for this approval isn’t uncommon, according to USACE officials.
For the Saylors, they feel as homeowners who are being proactive on this issue, the wait is unacceptable. They're especially frustrated since the homeowners foot the bill for the permits and the relocation of the house as well.
"I'm gonna say over $300,000 by the time we get everything back the way it was before. And that's just a rough estimate," Saylor said.
