West Virginians love Myrtle Beach. The most popular vacation destination for people from the Mountain State, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina is the closest, most accessible beach for many West Virginia residents.
However, this is not the summer to travel to “West Virginia Beach.” Governor Jim Justice and state officials warned residents to avoid Myrtle Beach this summer. In his latest press briefing, Justice said the following: “I have a lot of close friends and ties in South Carolina. South Carolina opened up and did their opening probably more aggressively than what we’ve done in a lot of ways and lo and behold, they now have a big-time problem going on.”
Justice continued: “But it becomes our problem too because so many people from West Virginia love to go to Myrtle Beach. It’s a great place to go and wonderful fun and just as beautiful as it can be and everything, but now, you know, we have multiple people coming back from Myrtle Beach that are testing positive.”
“If you opt to travel to Myrtle Beach – and I would think twice before I did that, West Virginians, because they’ve got a real problem going on there right now. But if do that, what I would highly recommend you do is when you get back be tested. Be tested. Halfway quarantine yourself and be tested. And maybe not halfway quarantine yourself, but if you choose to go to Myrtle Beach (or anywhere outside of our state) take the time to be tested. You may very well save a life and that life may be your own or someone very, very, very, very close to your family.”
In addition, according to the FBI’s latest US Crime Report, Myrtle Beach, SC is now officially the 3rd most dangerous city in the United States. According to the report, “To rank the most dangerous cities, we analyzed the data from cities with a population of 10,000 or more in 2018 and evaluated the number of reported Violent Crimes (murder, robbery, aggravated assault, and forcible rape) and reported Property Crimes (burglary, arson, motor vehicle theft, and larceny-theft). Myrtle Beach was only behind Emeryville, California and Turkwila, Washington according to the study.
Governor Justice was very clear and direct to the people of West Virginia: Stay home, stay safe, don’t travel – particularly to Myrtle Beach this summer – and let’s all do our part to beat the spread of the virus.
