In one violent week, over 500 miles of North Carolina coastline vanished beneath the ocean, leaving stunned residents to wake up to a shoreline that no longer existed. Entire beachfront neighborhoods that had stood for generations were suddenly swallowed, with piers snapped like twigs and roads ending abruptly at churning water.
The waters off North Carolina, a region long known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic, have claimed more than 5,000 ships over the centuries. The Outer Banks, a chain of narrow, sandy islands separating the Atlantic Ocean from the mainland, sits at the center of this dangerous stretch. To sailors, the area has always been treacherous. To locals, it has been a source of livelihood and legend.The isla…