LINCOLN COUNTY, Ore — On the morning of Feb. 27, residents on the south end of Lincoln County's Gleneden Beach woke up to see that a 30-foot seawall that had collapsed. The cliff holding it up had eroded away.
Within days, one home was left hanging.
Terry Schumacher lives just across the street. He's been helping his neighbors move out.
"Just in the last week they've lost about 15 feet, maybe a little more, because now their living room is undercut," he said.
Schumacher was referring to one of four homes impacted by the erosion. With each day, more property washes out to sea.
"The waves have been very high, we have sneaker waves today, last week we had 10-foot tides," he explained.
The homeowners are now looking for at least a temporary solution and are working with the state parks department.
The problem is, the state does not allow the use of shore stabilizing structures, like rip rap, for homes built after the mid 1970s. That's because while rip rap can stop erosion in one area of the beach, it might cause erosion to increase in another.
"I'm not eligible, nobody in our subdivision is because we were planted about six weeks after the magic date," said Schumacher.
Eroding cliffs have long been a problem in the Gleneden Beach area. Some residents have been able to stabilize properties by getting special permits to put in rip rap.
The owners of the four homes now teetering on the edge hope they'll be able to save their homes, too.
"Right now everyone's at an impasse," Schumacher said. "No one knows what to do or when to do it, so they are literally hanging in the air right now."