Atlantic storms brewing: Are they headed toward Myrtle Beach?

With a number of tropical weather systems brewing off the Atlantic Coast this week, Myrtle Beach residents who are anxious that hurricanes are headed this way may be relying on less-then-credible information, warns Randy Webster, Horry County emergency management director.

“You’ve got different meteorology groups out there like AccuWeather and others who routinely give their versions of what they think versus what the National Hurricane Center is doing,” Webster said.

One site indicated Charleston was in the crosshairs, suggesting those residents needed to start boarding windows and hoarding milk, Webster said.

“People just make up their own determination of what they think are hurricane forecasts,” said Webster, who advises that Myrtle Beach area residents follow predictions from the National Hurricane Center.

Fiona was finished before she got near the coast, and while Gaston is predicted to reach hurricane status Wednesday with winds over 70 mph, the National Hurricane Center says that storm will turn north and is likely to stay far out to sea and away from the South Carolina coast.

Federal forecasters are still keeping an eye on “Invest 99L,” so named because it hasn’t reached tropical depression levels and is still under investigation.

That system could develop into a tropical depression, but is not expected to reach the southern tip of Florida until Sunday. Beyond that, its track has yet to be determined.

Internet weather sites are speculating widely on where that unnamed storm is headed and the strength of its development, with predictions varying wildly from tropical wave to monster storm.

“There are a few internet services out there showing a lot of drama with this invest 99L development and it actually targeted some areas on the East Coast,” Webster said.

Impacted areas typically are notified at least five days away from a tropical storm or hurricane’s impact.

“It’s way too early to even be thinking of something like that. It’s slow to develop, it could even fall apart, but do the prudent thing and be watching,” Webster said about Fiona, that did eventually collapse.

County emergency officials have been conducting “Know Your Zone” community meetings to acquaint citizens and tourists with the state’s new hurricane evacuation zones, mandatory evacuation rules, and travel lane reversal procedures.

Folks living in Zone A, defined as properties between the coastline and U.S. 17 Business, will be asked to leave first in mandatory evacuations. Those living in Zone B, between U.S. 17 Business and U.S. 17 Bypass, are the second must vulnerable to a surge, followed by Zone C, which incorporates land west of U.S. 17 Bypass and mostly east of S.C. 31 and parts east of U.S. 701.

The next meeting is scheduled for Sept. 15 in Burgess at the South Strand Recreation Center, and officials are planning to hold another meeting in the western part of the county.

“We don’t do a lot over there because we’re focused on hurricanes on the coast so much, but it will affect people inland,” Webster said.

On May 27, the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration predicted a 70 percent chance of having 10-16 named storms in 2016. Four to eight of those could become hurricanes with winds of 74 mph or higher, including one to four major storms. But NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center cautioned the 2016 Atlantic hurricane season, which officially runs from June 1 through Nov. 30, has been hard to forecast with climate uncertainty.

The most devastating hurricane to sweep the South Carolina Coast was Hugo in 1989, a Category 5 storm that killed 27 people after making landfall between Charleston and Georgetown.

“It’s that time of year, it’s time for that, we just got to be careful, be vigilant and be prepared,” Webster said. “Right now, everything is pretty much status quo, we’ll just keep our eyes on the tropics for the next 45 days.”

This story was originally published August 25, 2016 at 11:31 AM with the headline "Atlantic storms brewing: Are they headed toward Myrtle Beach?."