OBX Spring Outbreak 2020: Money and The Coming Spread

With no travel restrictions in place, visitors flood the North Carolina Outer Banks. Local resort rental agencies capitalize as the tourism market now offers fewer options. Toilet paper is becoming a currency as stores and restaurants swell, mitigating any mindful, social distance. And the hospital in Nags Head has fewer than two dozen emergency beds, and no ICU.

Ventilators can be a temporary bridge to recovery — many patients in critical care who need them for help breathing get better.
Taechit Taechamanodom/Getty Images

My neighbors wanted me to tell you, all of you, that they are concerned about the safety of our most vulnerable community. Business owners straddle two worlds as they consider the safety of their workers as well of their own financial survival. Schools have been ordered closed, and store hours slashed. The national media has instilled a sense of both urgency and of fear, verging upon hysteria through sheer information overload. And while business owners and workers wrestle with the social responsibility of remaining open for business, our elderly, and immunocompromised family just hope that when the infectious wave arrives, they will be able to survive the flood.

Our Town Councilpersons and County Commissioners have acted in predictable fashion. But despite roars of disapproval from some of the locals, their hands are mostly tied. They are jammed between the wishes of an emotionally exhausted citizenry and the current recommendations for travel by state and federal…