Myrtle Beach hotel with roof damage was operating without current business license, city says

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WBTW) — A Myrtle Beach hotel that was damaged by wind Thursday morning does not have a current business license and should not have been open, city spokesman Mark Kruea said.

A section of the roof at the Summer Wind hotel at 1903 S. Ocean Boulevard collapsed, prompting authorities to temporarily shut down a section of S. Ocean Boulevard from 18th Ave. to 20th Ave. The hotel’s parking lot remained closed Thursday afternoon, but the road was reopened.

A few people who saw the roof come off said it happened around 10 a.m. Thursday morning.

Aymen Ismeil works at the Palmsbythebeach motel across the street from Summer Wind. He told News13 he saw the roof loosen up as the wind got stronger.

“Boom, it’s falling over like a bunch of bananas,” Ismeil said. “I’m like what the heck happened. Not even five minutes later, I see four fire trucks, five police cruisers and I see a whole lot more buildings like two county ambulances come over.”

One man staying at the motel who declined to go on camera says he and about four other people immediately evacuated, but he says everyone got out safe.

Another woman who also declined to go on camera but works at one of the motels across the street says it sounded like firecrackers going off when the roof came off. She added it looked like repairs were being done on the roof for the past week.

“I look out, a lot of the firemen, they go upstairs and what I think they were doing was like cutting up the most side bits,” Ismeil said.

He said when roof came off, debris went everywhere.

“That one nearly hits the window but hits the ground again,” Ismeil said. “Which I’m like well we got a lot of near hits. I’m glad none of our property got hit because we would’ve been suing.”

We’ve reached out to the Summer Wind motel but have not heard back.

Authorities also closed another section of N. Ocean Boulevard between 25th and 26th avenues to pedestrian traffic Thursday morning after reports of damage at the Beverly Beach House. The owner told News13 Thursday afternoon that nothing from the building ended up on the street. He said a pool-like lining that covers the roof got loose in the wind and just needed to be nailed down.

No other information was immediately available. Count on News13 for updates.

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Adrianna Lawrence is a multimedia journalist at News13. Adrianna is originally from Virginia Beach, Virginia, and joined the News13 team in June 2023 after graduating from Virginia Commonwealth University in May 2023. Keep up with Adrianna on Instagram, Facebook, and X, formerly Twitter. You can also read more of her work, here.

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Dennis Bright is a Digital Producer at News13. He joined the team in May 2021. Dennis is a West Virginia native and a graduate of Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. Follow Dennis on, Facebook, X, formerly Twitter, and read more of his work here.

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