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North Myrtle Beach, The World's Widest Beach? By JEFF SELINGO, Wilmington Morning Star NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. - Popular license plates proclaimed it. The tourist offices promoted it: ``North Myrtle Beach, The World's Widest Beach.'' You can't find those license plates for sale anymore, and it's just as hard to locate that wide beach at times. South Carolina's Grand Strand is no longer so grand. At high tide, beach chairs look more like rafts, and souvenir shoppers and beach walkers alike parade through the crowded streets of the popular tourist mecca. ``People don't just call for wake-up calls anymore,'' said a front desk clerk at The Blockade Runner on North Ocean Boulevard. ``Now they want to know when high tide is.'' As the beach eroded, property owners built walls of armor to protect their investments. A combination of wooden seawalls, rocks and concrete walls dot the beachfront. There's little other protection from the wrath of Mother Nature. Natural dune lines, sea oats and sand fences - common protection for the Tar Heel coast - don't exist anymore, knocked down years ago by developers wanting to build ever closer to the water. North Myrtle Beach is what North Carolina officials point to as the closest example of what the Tar Heel state would look like if it weren't for the state's 11-year-old ban on seawalls and other hardened structures. A $54 million beach renourishment project scheduled to begin next month will add some 5 million cubic yards of sand to 25 miles of Myrtle Beach. ``If this project works, there'll be a noticeable difference,'' said Jerry Pierce, an engineer for the city of North Myrtle Beach. Some coastal residents want more.
``One long concrete wall curved like a wave from the north to sthe south,'' said Tom Vernon, construction supervisor at the Peppertree Ocean Club. Three years after its neighbor to the north, South Carolina banned hardened structures in 1988 based on evidence that they only shifted erosion elsewhere. But by the time the law was passed, 27 percent of the state's coast was already armored, compared with only 5 percent of North Carolina's developed shoreline when it enacted the ban in 1985. Both states join Maine as the only states to ban hardened structures. For most states, it's too late, says Duke University coastal geologist Orrin Pilkey. About half of the New Jersey shore is fortified, 45 percent of Florida, 80 percent of Georgia and 70 percent of Virginia, Dr. Pilkey said.
Take a walk along North Myrtle Beach, and residents will share their frustration over the ban. ``I'd love to have it back the way it was,'' said Emily Stephens, manager of The Blockade Runner. ``It was there for 30 years and didn't hurt anything.'' The hotel wasn't allowed to rebuild a seawall that protected its pool after Hurricane Hugo destroyed more than 80 percent of the structure in 1989. By the year 2001, any hardened structure destroyed by more than 50 percent can't be rebuilt, according to state law. But unlike its neighbor to the north, South Carolina only encourages developers to build as far back from the water as possible. In 1979, North Carolina established minimum distances that developers must build from the water. Though it couldn't rebuild a seawall after Hugo, The Blockade Runner was allowed to place tons of rocks to protect the hotel's foundation. Now those rocks sit where guests once swam in the pool. Hotel management built a new pool on land next door. ``Those rocks can't protect us,'' Ms. Stephens said, pointing to boulders that fall far below the seawall next door at the Peppertree Ocean Club. Although the walls are blamed for cutting away at the beach, many beachgoers said they're willing to sacrifice part of the beach for tall high rise hotels nearby. ``It was sad to see the pool moved from the beach,'' said Shannon Patterson, a frequent Blockade Runner guest from Ohio. ``We come here because we want to stay at hotels right on the beach. If that means we have a little less sand, well OK.'' North Carolina officials say tourists come to North Carolina more for the beaches than the entertainment surrounding resorts. ``We always read in travel magazines how people go there to golf, for shopping and entertainment, not the beach,'' said Roger Schecter, director of the N.C. Division of Coastal Management. ``They come here for the beach, and that's what we need to protect.'' |
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"Serving Destin, Ft. Walton Beach, Panama City, Pensacola, Crestview, Eglin AFB, Hurlburt Field and all points in-between..."
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