Hurricane Ian takes out four piers in Myrtle Beach area, two are 60 miles apart

Four piers in the Grand Strand have partially collapsed as a result of storm surges and wind from Hurricane Ian.

The piers sit at the southernmost, central and northernmost points of the Grand Strand.

In the south, the end of Pawleys Island’s pier collapsed and floated south into the Atlanic Ocean as Hurricane Ian made its powerful approach to South Carolina after 1 p.m. Friday.

The town’s police department announced the damage via Twitter just before 1:30 p.m. on Sept. 30, shortly before Ian was expected to make landfall.

Twitter user Jerry Lieberman posted this video of debris from the pier.

In the north, a portion of the Cherry Grove Pier has also collapsed. It’s neighbor, the Sea Cabin Pier in North Myrtle Beach, also suffered a partial collapse in 2020 due to storm surges and winds from Hurricane Isaias. The Sea Cabin Pier reopened in 2021, nearly a year after Hurricane Isaias.

A third Myrtle Beach-area pier, the Apache Pier, has also partially collapsed, WPDE chief meteorologist Ed Piotrowski reported on Twitter.

The Apache Pier sits at the almost exact center of the Grand Strand in the Arcadian Shores neighborhood between Myrtle Beach proper and the city of North Myrtle Beach. The Apache pier was last damaged by Hurricane Isaias in 2020 and Hurricane Matthew before that but had since been repaired.

Also in the central part of the Grand Strand, Hurricane Ian ripped off part of Myrtle Beach’s 2nd Avenue pier. A photo posted by WMBF News on Twitter showed a raft of wood more than 15 feet long floating off into the ocean after detaching from the pier.

The anchor point of the 2nd Avenue pier on land is home to Wicked Tuna, one of Myrtle Beach’s most famous locally-owned restaurants.