HONOLULU (KHON2) -- A high surf warning expires on Thursday, Jan. 9 for north-facing shores. Beaches across the state have seen a lot of changes this winter, lifeguards have been extremely busy and some homeowners are grappling with the ocean bursting through their homes. Get Hawaii's latest morning news delivered to your inbox, sign up for News 2 You The National Weather Service said wave heights from this last swell reached about 40 feet face value. The swell direction was also a mix of west and northwest, which changed the shape of several beaches overnight. Residents said they don't remember the last winter when there were this many back-to-back large swell events and experts said it's a warning sign. ‘At a crisis point,’ Hundreds of animals overcrowd Oahu SPCA At 6 a.m. this morning, a large wave crashed into a home on Ke Nui Road. "Set came through my living room and blasted the door open. There was about three inches of water to my back bedrooms," said beachfront homeowner Todd Dunphy. "We have no protection here. The DLNR doesn't allow us to do anything." Dunphy said it's been happening once a week since The Eddie. The beach is typically much wider in the winter but the consistent massive surf and one unfavorable swell direction has taken more sand than it's able to return. "A healthy beach that has lots of sand that will come and go may have beach rock buried deep within it, but as soon as you see beach rock exposed, it's a clear indicator that what used to be a healthy beach was buried in it is now gone," explained Chip Fletcher, UH Manoa School of Ocean and Earth Sciences and Technology professor. He said successive swell events like this mean the sand doesn't have time to move back and while most go offshore and return over time, this winter is a warning sign. "The beach can't move landward, in other words, if there were homes there, especially with sandbags and sea walls and other protective devices, then that beach is going to be squeezed out of existence. And then none of the sand that's offshore won't be delivered back onto the beach." Since Thanksgiving, the NWS has issued four high surf warnings for north-facing shores, which means wave heights exceed 25 feet. At-risk homeowners said they want to try rock revetments to help save their properties, but experts don't think it would work. Find more Hawaii, Oahu, Maui and Kauai news here "This is an accelerating, unstoppable problem that's going to go on for centuries, and we need to figure out a solution, and it has to come from government." Owners have been meeting to figure out a plan to save their homes but have had no luck with DLNR.