COLUMBIA, S.C. - One of the busiest hurricane seasons in years combined with a five-year drought in funding has left the South Carolina's beaches in their worst shape since Hurricane Hugo, officials with the state's coastal management agency said Monday.

The state Department of Health and Environmental Control released its State of the Beaches report, which reflected the heavy toll taken when the centers of four tropical systems crossed South Carolina for the first time in more than a century.

"One of the reasons the beaches are in the worst shape since Hugo is ... very little money has been dedicated either at the state, local or federal level to maintain the beaches," said Steve Snyder, acting deputy commissioner for DHEC's Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management.

Funding began to slow in 1999 as the economy worsened, Snyder said. "We sort of got a little behind then and the quality of the beaches went down each year," he said.

Funding improved at the state level last year when legislators put aside $5 million to renourish parts of Hunting Island, Snyder said. Work will start on that project this spring.

The $5.8 billion state budget bill being debated this week in the House includes $5 million for beach renourishment in the upcoming fiscal year. Snyder said most of the money would fund a project to restore eroded parts of Edisto Beach and Edisto Beach State Park, the coastal management agency's top priority.

Rep. Bill Bowers, D-Brunson, said the budget allows the agency to determine how to spend the $5 million.

Edisto is badly in need of renourishment, Bowers said. "Just last week, Edisto Beach lost two additional houses that cannot be occupied because of beach erosion," he said. One home's porch fell into the ocean, Bowers said.

The tide washes onto the front beach road along Edisto Beach and one part of the beach is off-limits to the public because "it's a cliff now rather than a beach," Bowers said. "It's actually hazardous for people now to access the beach."

Beaches are vital to the state's $14 billion tourism industry, South Carolina's largest.

"People drive hundreds of miles to use it," Snyder said. "What money we put in to maintain the industry is really just to keep that industry running."

South Carolina will have to be more aggressive in keeping its beaches healthy with the threat of decreasing federal funding, Bowers said.

President Bush's proposed budget eliminates all funding for renourishment. The federal government usually pays 65 percent for beach renourishment projects and the local and state governments pay the remaining 35 percent.

"I think very clearly the national budget condition suggests that South Carolina must step up to the plate and recognize the importance of preserving and conserving one of its most valuable resources, which are the beaches," Bowers said.

This summer, for the first time since 1893, the centers of four tropical systems crossed into South Carolina in the same year.

The remnants of Hurricane Jeanne tracked through in September while Hurricane Charley and Tropical Storm Gaston made landfall within miles of each other in Charleston County in August. The remnants of Bonnie tracked through after landfall on the Gulf of Mexico.

The fringes of Hurricanes Frances and Ivan also brought heavy rain, tornadoes and damage, although the center of those storms did not pass through the state.

Beaches suffered erosion from Jeanne, Gaston, Charley and Frances as well as Alex, which passed off the state's coast early in the season, state officials said.