City of Myrtle Beach, other municipalities enforce Governor’s order to close public beach accesses

MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WBTW) – Governor Henry McMaster has ordered all public beach accesses to close, but that doesn’t mean the beach closed with it.

The city of Myrtle Beach says the beach is still open, however, the ways to get to it have changed. The order does not apply to private property. City officials say you can still go to the beach through these private accesses, as long as you own the property or have permission to use it and are not trespassing.

“The order isn’t that specific- all public access is closed, but if you’re a member of a private club, it doesn’t say, ‘hey you can’t do this,'” Mark Kruea, spokesperson for the city of Myrtle Beach said.

Myrtle Beach has more than 100 public beach accesses, adjacent public parking lots and dune crossovers it had to close on Tuesday. City officials say the Governor did not give them any warning of the order.

“The Governor has been good about asking for input, and in this case we didn’t get any input at all, and really (we) had not had any issues with people enjoying our beach safely and responsibly,” Kreua said.

“Over the weekend there were some issues in other parts of the state, not here, and it’s unfortunate that our residents who are abiding by the rules of social distancing, enjoying the great outdoors, no longer have this option because of this order.”

Kruea says the city has enforced the governor’s order by closing every public beach access and adjacent parking lots. City’s police and fire departments will continue to patrol the beach to enforce the Governor’s other order- social distancing with three people or less.

The city of North Myrtle Beach closed its public beach accesses on Tuesday. Officials say if people are on the beach, the city’s Beach Patrol will enforce the Governor’s order that, except for family units, groups of three or more people must disperse to achieve social distancing.

Horry County also closed its public beach accesses. A police department spokesperson told News13 officers will continue to enforce social distancing by dispersing groups of more than three people.