Spring breakers overwhelmed Miami. What’s happening in Myrtle Beach?

Déjà vu — spring breakers are flooding Florida’s beaches, raising concerns about another surge in COVID-19 cases just as the U.S. finally gets a handle on vaccinations.

Didn’t this happen last year? Yes, it did.

In 2020, those spring break crowds showed up in Myrtle Beach as coastal cities in Florida and Georgia shut down access to the beaches. The Grand Strand made national news as videos showed hundreds of people packed onto our 60 miles of sand and flouting health and safety recommendations until S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster shut down the beaches at the end of March.

This year, on Saturday, Miami declared a state of emergency and instituted an 8 p.m. curfew for its entertainment district to try to control the crowds. It only helped somewhat.

Those measures only showed up very recently — three days ago. On Sunday, the curfew was extended to April 12.

But spring break season has only just begun. Myrtle Beach tends to see waves of spring breakers starting the second or third week of March going all the way into the end of April.

Meanwhile, South Carolina has been named the second riskiest state to travel to in the U.S. by a subsidiary of the insurance and financial marketplace LendingTree.

Health officials in many cities and states are still asking residents not to travel, saying it could overwhelm medical systems that have been struggling for the past year. The CDC also has warned that the more the virus spreads, there are greater chances of variants developing that can withstand medical treatment or current vaccines.

If coronavirus restrictions come back to other East Coast beaches, could Myrtle Beach end up seeing a repeat of last year? Will people rush to coronavirus-restriction-less South Carolina?

For the moment, the answer is no.

The most notable reason is this year, the new restrictions in the Miami area only cover one small slice of one city, whereas last year Myrtle Beach was one of the last places left on the East Coast — even the entire country — with open beaches. That lack of restriction allowed for an influx of visitors not typically seen in the Grand Strand.

That’s not the case this year. Add to that, generally speaking, Myrtle Beach tends to be most attractive to families and older adults, while Florida beaches such as Miami Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Daytona Beach all tend to attract party-going college students and young people. Those crowds aren’t necessarily expected to just hop up the coast to Myrtle Beach this year, local officials say.

“I think everyone here is making sure they are prepared, but going into Easter, our makeup will be very much more geared to families,” Myrtle Beach Hospitality Association CEO Stephen Greene said.

So far, local spring break crowds haven’t been unusually large. Visitors in recent weeks have been coming for a variety of reasons. Some are on vacation, but others are here for sporting events or festivals like the Run to the Sun Car Show, which had to cancel much of its first day Thursday thanks to bad weather.

The vaccine rollout, now at 2.65 million doses being administered per day in the U.S., could also mute the effects of these spring break crowds rushing to the beach and ignoring health recommendations.