Is living in myrtle beach dangerous?
Hi, my name is Lance MacMillan, and I am here to let you know everything you need to know about Myrtle Beach real estate…and hopefully entertain you a little in the process. I am a Navy vet and licensed realtor with Mango Homes powered by KWMB, and today we’re going to talk about things that might unsettle some people about living in myrtle beach, that way you might feel a little more at ease about something that might be bothering you.
Hurricanes
Living in Myrtle beach, you can see the occasional hurricane from June to November-ish. Hurricanes are natures way of cooling off all that hot water in the northern hemisphere when its sunny out. Folks in the southern hemisphere get the same treatment, down there they get typhoon season and it runs from December to May. Which is their summer and fall. Which is so weird.
C3po clip
So how bad can hurricane season be in Myrtle beach? Not as bad as you’d think actually. Comparing state to state, since 1851 NC, TX, and LA have seen twice as many direct hits as SC, and Florida has seen 4x as many hits as SC. As far as MAJOR storms, SC has only seen 5 direct hits since 1851, the last one being Hugo in 1989.
And that’s ALL of SC. What about just Myrtle Beach? MB gets off easy as far as direct hits go. When you look at the map, MB kind of sits back in a 40 mile long cul de sac. Combine this with the way the atlantic current runs and while we can and do get sideswiped by the occasional hurricane, the storm itself is usually relatively forgiving. I’ve been through 4 hurricanes here and I only lost power for a little bit in one of them.
BUT while the hurricanes usually give us a pass, the flooding from them usually doesn’t. (VERDICT)
Flooding
One of the major draws of living in myrtle beach is the water. And there’s a lot of water to choose from! Between fishing on the waccamaw river, boating on the ICW, and going to any one of a dozen different beaches and state parks, you’ve got your pick of where to enjoy the water. But that can come with a price. Myrtle Beach is downstream of a number of major rivers, and when a hurricane hits Florida and runs north, or when it augers into NC like they sometimes do, the water runs downhill and our rivers can and do flood.
Footage
Depending on how the storm hits, sometimes the flooding can be worse further away from the ocean. A LOT of people worry about buying a home in a flood zone. It’s OK though, I have the mother of all flood map playlists on youtube specifically about Myrtle Beach letting you know every conceivable thing you need to know about flooding, flood maps, and flood insurance. The link to the playlist can be found in the description below…if you have any questions, just hit me up in the comments below and I’ll be happy to help!
Alligators
Living in Myrtle Beach means living in alligator country, though it’s not quite as alligatory as Florida. Per Google, Florida has roughly 1.5 million alligators…South Carolina tops out at around 100000 of them.
(insert chompy gator)
The State paper researched it and we’ve only had 23 alligator attacks since 1915. You’d think it’d be more than that right? Alligators will proactively attack smaller mammals, fish, birds, and reptiles, even other alligators, but not people. Why? You’re not food. Alligators don’t want to eat you, but if they think you’re a threat they will defend themselves so avoid tromping around in places where they like to hide and you’ll be fine.
Odds are, even though they’re definitely out there you’ll never see one in the wild. Turns out they’re pretty shy around people. Our home is on a pond that has direct drainage to the Waccamaw River. We’ve been here over three years and we’ve seen every kind of animal you can imagine hanging around that pond, but not a single alligator. I’m sure they’ve been there, there might be one out there right now, but we’re out there all the time and…nothing. (VERDICT)
Sharks
The big draw about being at the beach here is…well, the beach. Millions of visitors and residents alike splash around and have fun in the ocean from spring all the way up to around thanksgiving. The subtropical climate also brings in tons of fish…and where theres fish, there’s sharks.
You have to watch out for any wild animal with teeth, but as for the ones that grab headlines for being a little too bitey with people we have three: the great white, the tiger shark, and the bull shark. Bull sharks are the ones that are responsible for more bites in the southeast than any other breed, and they can and do make their way into rivers sometimes exploring and looking for food.
Insert little river footage
So you figure with millions of people in the water and three known maneaters out there in close quarters with them we’d have a fair amount of shark attacks right? Actually no, the entire state of SC has averaged 4.5 bites per year over the past 10 years, over 4x fewer than Florida. And none of those were fatalities.
Again just like with alligators, you’re not food. Invariably, shark bites happen when people are confused with food or when people are caught between food and the shark coming after it.
The best way to avoid any danger is simply don’t go where the food is, and that means avoiding going in the water where there are fishing piers. Small fish like to hide near fishing piers and that’s one draw for the sharks. The other is the bait people are casting into the water. Don’t go swimming near the fishing piers and you’re good to go. (VERDICT)
Crime
The last thing I want to cover is crime. Living in Myrtle Beach, to judge by some of the more freewheeling parts of facebook, is fraught with danger because of rampant crime and that Myrtle Beach is one of the most dangerous cities in the country. Now, the NAR says that our average homeowner here is 61 years old and earns about $75k a year. So I ask you this: How could you come to the conclusion that Myrtle Beach is the crime capital of the south when the VAST majority of residents who live here drive buicks and are AARP members?
(no worries groundhog day confused willard scott)
The answer to that question can be found in a quote by Benjamin Disraeli and popularized by mark Twain: there are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics
Let me explain. The population of the entire Myrtle Beach metro area right now is a little over 400000 people, who skew older and more settled than the national average. Out of that 400000 people, you’ll statistically see X number of people being brought in for reckless driving, X number of people being brought in for public intoxication, that kind of thing. But we see far more than you’d expect across the board.
Why? Because of tourism.
Myrtle Beach sees up to 17 million additional people who come to visit every year, which is like having the entire population of New York City come by to relax and have fun TWICE a year. On any given day, our population could be double or TRIPLE what it actually shows on the books…so instead of X number of people being brought in for reckless driving, or X number of people being brought in for public intoxication, we’ll see double or TRIPLE of what you’d expect to see for the number of people who quote unquote live here.
And odds are, when the police DO catch someone double parking or something
(Blazing saddles horse)
It’s probably one of those 17 million visitors, and not the nice retired couple from Rhode Island. Myrtle Beach does not have a crime problem, we have a statistics problem. (VERDICT)