Can you be charged for entering ocean after SC beach flagged due to Hurricane Erin?
Large swells from Hurricane Erin are expected to impact the Myrtle Beach area coastline this week, producing strong rip currents, high surf and coastal flooding, according to the National Weather Service.
The first hurricane of the 2025 season is forecasted to pass by the Grand Strand Wednesday, bringing with it life-threatening swimming conditions.
As of Wednesday morning, beaches in Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach have been posted with a red flag, meaning that swimmers can only be in the water waist deep. Lifeguards are permitted to call people back from the water if they violate the restriction.
However, officials are expecting that the beaches will be upgraded to a double red flag, which prevents swimmers from entering the ocean at all.
Those that do violate the flag status could be charged under ordinances that are in place by Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach and Horry County.
Discretion is usually left up to the lifeguards who monitor the waters. However, disobeying the “directions and instructions of any lifeguard authorized by the city with regard to activities on the beach and ocean” is considered a misdemeanor under North Myrtle Beach’s city ordinance.
Similar language is used for both Myrtle Beach and Horry County in regard to its beaches.
“It’s rare,” said Nick Jackson, co-owner of Myrtle Beach Surf Rescue, about charging someone with disobeying a lifeguard. “You’ve got to have a pretty stubborn individual ... who is willing to pay a fine and potentially go to jail.”
But it can happen.
Jackson expects the surf conditions to deteriorate throughout the day, which may require a double red flag. He said officials will continue to monitor conditions throughout the day.
“With the hurricane off shore, (the) surf is going to continue to increase,” Jackson said.
And it’s not just swimming conditions in which someone could be charged and fined, the ordinance goes for any safety hazard determined by a lifeguard, said North Myrtle Beach Beach Patrol Officer May Wingard.
North Myrtle Beach also has a second ordinance that prevents people from being in the ocean waters more than 50 yards from the point where the ocean adjoins the beach or be in the ocean waters at a depth greater than shoulder height, said North Myrtle Beach Officer Pat Wilkinson.
Wilkinson said a person would only be charged if an officer is called to deal with the situation. However, Wingard also said it’s “pretty rare” for someone to disobey a lifeguard.
Those who do go out into the water when it’s not safe, create an “an inherrent danger” for firemen and rescue crews, said Capt. Jon Evans with the Myrtle Beach Fire Department.
Firemen don’t have the power to charge people with disobeying an order of entering the water, but they do “put themselves in danger” by having to go into the water to rescue someone who went into the ocean when they shouldn’t have, Evans said.
This story was originally published August 20, 2025 at 11:27 AM.
