Exposed hazards on the beach near Ocean Drive in Rodanthe, North Carolina.

Utilities and septic systems exposed by the Atlantic Ocean at Cape Hatteras National Seashore in North Carolina have prompted an advisory to visitors to the seashore.

National Park Service staff at Cape Hatteras says visitors should avoid the beach adjacent to Ocean Drive in Rodanthe due to exposed wires, pipes, and septic systems. The items were uncovered as the ocean continued to erode away the beachfront.

The Park Service is working with Dare County and the Cape Hatteras Electric Cooperative on the exposed hazards. A park release Thursday warned that other hazards, such as building materials and parts of septic systems, may also be present in other areas of the beach adjacent to Ocean Drive in Rodanthe so beachgoers should use caution throughout the beaches in front of the village.

Since 2020, five houses have collapsed into the Atlantic at the national seashore. When they were initially built, they were back away from the surf line, but more potent storms, sea-level rise, and the natural movements of the barrier island that is home to the seashore moved them closer to the surf. Those collapses scattered building materials, and in some cases, raw sewage and potentially hazardous materials into the ocean and along the beaches.

Last fall the Park Service used $700,000 from the Land and Water Conservation Fund to purchase two houses in danger of collapsing and planned to have them removed.