Reality check: Has North Myrtle Beach stopped rental services at some beaches?

The city of North Myrtle Beach typically rents chairs and umbrellas along the coast from late April to mid-October.

But this year, some areas are off limits for rentals.

There had been concerns that rental service in the Cherry Grove area run through Beach Services stopped supplying beach equipment at the north end of the city because it’s too far.

While chairs and umbrellas are currently unavailable to rent past 48th Avenue North, the restrictions are unrelated to distance, according to city spokesperson Lauren Jessie. Instead, North Myrtle Beach has temporarily halted rental service for boxes one through four pending beach renourishment.

“We would normally have those boxes out there. It’s just that, because over time, the beach erosion has been getting more and more significant, we’re losing space on the beach to have all of this set up,” said Jessie.

The United States Army Corps of Engineers plans to restore coastal erosion in the Grand Strand with 2 million cubic yards of material, the equivalent of 200,000 dump trucks.

Since the last renourishment was completed in 2018, the area was hit by Hurricane Ian in 2022 and Hurricane Debby in 2024.

It’s unclear when renourishment in the Cherry Grove area will be completed. The project is estimated to take about 18 months to complete, but an official start date hasn’t been announced.

“We don’t know when the start date is. The Army Corps has not announced that information yet, and they also haven’t announced their starting point,” Jessie said.

Once work begins, updates on which areas are open and uncompleted, scheduled for closure, currently closed or open and completed, will be available online with the Myrtle Beach Construction Tracker.