‘Fourth gator I’ve seen this morning.’ Flooding brings alligators to SC courtyard. See the video

Torrential rain poured down on Friday as Eric Ness woke from a nap and looked outside.

The gazebo in the lake near his Myrtle Beach condo was flooded. As usual. Then he saw something that gave him pause.

An alligator.

Swimming along. Probably a 6-to-7-footer, average size for an American alligator, maybe 200 pounds.

Ness had his phone so he started recording as the gator made its way for the wooden walkway.

“Oh my God. I hope nobody goes up there,” he says on the video, talking to his girlfriend Crystal Light.

“He’s totally going up there,” she said.

“That’s like the fourth gator I’ve seen this morning,” he said.

That 45 second video has — as they say — gone viral, thanks to Facebook, Yahoo News and ABC, and the rights are now held by Storyful.

But Light has another video, this one, showing the animal coming out of the water near an area where a lot of older people walk their dogs.

“He’s coming out of the water,” she says on the video. “Oh, my goodness.”

Ness said his first thought was to warn his neighbors, many of whom go out to the gazebo to watch the sunset and to spend time with friends and family. Usually it’s a quiet soothing place to sit.

Alligators change the dynamic.

Ness, a musician and leathersmith, said it’s not the first time he’s seen alligators out there. During a hurricane a couple of years ago the water was rushing so rapidly a gator was spinning, pushed along by the current.

That one was massive, he said, probably 11 feet. Another time a neighbor opened their door to an alligator standing there.

Alligators are not that big typically but can easily fit under a car, he said.

An elderly man died in June in the neighborhood next to his by being pulled into a retention pond by an 11-foot-long gator. Both developments back up to Waccamaw National Wildlife Refuge, where ponds are full of large alligators.

“All of us need to be cautious, aware,” he said.