Whenever a tropical storm rolls past the Grand Strand, beach erosion is a concern.
The high waves kicked up by Hurricane Earl will certainly carry some sand out to sea with them. Whenever a tropical storm rolls past the Grand Strand, beach erosion is a concern.
Over the Labor Day weekend, local beach observers will almost certainly see evidence of sand loss caused by Earl.
But Clay McCoy, who heads Coastal Carolina University's Beach Erosion and Research Monitoring program , says the impact from Earl will be minor and temporary.
Over the next few weeks, he says the beach will recover, and over time, storms like Earl often bring sediment into the system, leaving beaches in better shape than they were before.
"There's localized erosion in the near term, but it actually does push sand closer to shore and once the recovery occurs, we might have wider beaches than we did before the storm," McCoy said.
High winds and heavy waves are the biggest factors involved with pulling sand out to sea, but McCoy says, they're not the only ones.
"Every case is very different. We generally do think erosion is going to be an issue whenever we have larger storms, but it all depends on the variables."
Horry County has cameras set up to monitor the beaches and McCoy will use them over the next few days to keep an eye on the usual erosion hot spots like Cherry Grove and Garden City.
He may see problems, but he doesn't think they'll last for long.
"Usually in these situations we see the storm will come in, there will be instant erosion, and within a couple days, the beaches recover."
McCoy says the beach renourishment program that began in 2007 left Grand Strand beaches in great shape. There's more sand to dampen the storm's energy and keep people and buildings safe.
Research from the Office of Coastal Resources Management shows that the Myrtle Beach shoreline erodes at the rate of 0.68 feet per year.
