‘We were very, very lucky.’ Myrtle Beach pier restaurant unscathed by Hurricane Ian

Myrtle Beach’s only restaurant on the ocean was unscathed by Hurricane Ian, despite the category one storm damaging six other piers in the Grand Strand area.

Pier 14 Seafood Restaurant & Fishing Pier, located three minutes away from the Myrtle Beach Skywheel, suffered no structural damage after Hurricane Ian battered S.C. coasts on Friday.

“We were very, very lucky,” restaurant owner Bryan Devereux said.

Devereux added that while the restaurant was fine, a piece of rubber membrane on the roof on the tackle shop was torn during Hurricane Ian.

Hurricane Ian made landfall early Friday afternoon in Georgetown County as a category 1 hurricane. The hurricane brought storm surge, high winds, heavy rain and power outages to parts of northeast S.C. and southeast N.C.

Deverex said that he didn’t expect the storm to turn out the way it did.

“This storm kind of crept up on us,” Devereux said. “I don’t think we prepared, we didn’t do much of anything. I just thought it was going to be a little rain and a little wind. But it built up and the seas were very angry.”

When Hurricane Hugo hit Myrtle Beach in 1989, the front ramp of the restaurant was torn and the pier itself completely collapsed, according to the restaurant’s website.

While Pier 14 Seafood Restaurant has existed in the area since 1986, the pier itself has been around near 100 years.