State coastal lands officials Monday reached out to Sunset Beach residents threatened by such severe shore erosion that it has left their homes dangerously close to the edge of a newly carved 20-foot cliff.

A team from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources met with residents, talked to lifeguards and examined the eroded stretch of North Shore beach at Ke Nui Road that includes the home of pro surfer Fred Patacchia Jr.

Recent waves have taken away most of Patacchia’s backyard, half of his pool, a coconut tree and a stairway down to the beach. Ten or so other oceanfront neighbors that face Kammie’s surf break are in the same predicament.

Sam Lemmo, administrator with DLNR’s Conservation and Coastal Lands Division, said officials are hoping to expedite any request for emergency measures to stop
the erosion.

Patacchia’s father, Fred Patacchia Sr., earlier Monday expressed frustration about not getting any help from the government. By afternoon, however, he was working to summon a heavy equipment operator to help shore up the beach in front of his son’s multimillion-dollar house.
The younger Patacchia is at a surfing competition in Portugal.

Lifeguards closed the beach along the eroded stretch where the newly carved rocky cliff features scores of sandbags, exposed tree roots and bare concrete foundations. Signs read, “Caution Unstable Rocks, Stay Away.”

Up on the cliff, a 100-year-old tree with a treehouse was teetering on the edge.

“I think the water’s going to take it, but I hope not,” said Garrick Berger, who was helping a friend keep an eye on her house.

Brent Cooper, a former Sunset Beach resident who has surfed the North Shore for 25 years, said he’s never seen anything like it.

He said he was surfing Saturday when he saw a big chunk of yard fall into the water.

“This morning I was surfing and I saw a 10-foot-by-10-foot plot of land floating out to sea,” he said.

“It’s crazy. We really haven’t had a big swell yet. I can’t imagine what’s going to happen this winter.”

The situation is just a freak of nature, apparently. Lemmo said that for whatever reason this stretch of beach found itself with a sand deficit following the last winter wave season, and apparently most of the wave action since then was flowing in the wrong direction and simply unable to bring the sand back.

Patrick Anderson has been watching the erosion ever since he moved to Sunset Beach four months ago. On Monday he was checking out the surf from the lanai of a neighbor’s home where most of the yard has literally disappeared.

“It seems like yesterday we were playing badminton in this yard,” he said. “Now look at it. It’s crazy how fast it’s happened.

“And it only took a couple of days to wipe out the staircase to the beach. Now I’ve got a lot longer walk to the surf.”