Thank you Dan Driscoll, for sharing this information which appeared on the front page of the Seattle Times newspaper today. I really have mixed emotions about this and feel guilty about it. This seems to reflect the views of some Surfside members Also.
This article contains a lot of facts that I didn't know, but I think you will find it interesting, especially with the people who we are familiar with. Maybe a return to "normal", isn't as good as we thought.
Pacific County to visitors: Live in Seattle? Stay there
‘Go home’ | In posts and leaflets, year-round residents are expressing their frustration.
By erik lacitis
Seattle Times staff reporter
Seattle Times staff reporter
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Emotions have gotten heated in isolated, picturesque Pacific County, pop. 22,000, a three-hour drive from Seattle, out there by the coast.
As an anonymous leaflet left on car windshields the weekend of March 28 at the WorldMark Long Beach timeshare condos put it: “Your vacation is not worth our lives. Go home. Stay home. Save lives. The Long Beach Peninsula has only ONE VENTILATOR. Do you really want to test those odds?”
John Whitby, general manager of the WorldMark, says he wrote off the leaflet to a “Karen,” a slang term for an entitled, middle-aged mom.
The locals here know they have been very, very lucky, at least for a while.
Until April 10, Pacific was one of two Washington counties the daily COVID-19 statistics showed as “0 confirmed cases, 0 deaths.”
The other is Garfield County, in Eastern Washington’s wheat-growing hills, the smallest of the state’s 39 counties.
“We have a big county,” says Martha Lanman, administrator for the Garfield County Health District, meaning how spread out residents are.
It sure is. Its 2,200 inhabitants translate to nine people per square mile, according to census data, compared to King County’s 1,056
As an anonymous leaflet left on car windshields the weekend of March 28 at the WorldMark Long Beach timeshare condos put it: “Your vacation is not worth our lives. Go home. Stay home. Save lives. The Long Beach Peninsula has only ONE VENTILATOR. Do you really want to test those odds?”
John Whitby, general manager of the WorldMark, says he wrote off the leaflet to a “Karen,” a slang term for an entitled, middle-aged mom.
The locals here know they have been very, very lucky, at least for a while.
Until April 10, Pacific was one of two Washington counties the daily COVID-19 statistics showed as “0 confirmed cases, 0 deaths.”
The other is Garfield County, in Eastern Washington’s wheat-growing hills, the smallest of the state’s 39 counties.
“We have a big county,” says Martha Lanman, administrator for the Garfield County Health District, meaning how spread out residents are.
It sure is. Its 2,200 inhabitants translate to nine people per square mile, according to census data, compared to King County’s 1,056
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people per square mile.
On April 10, Pacific County left the 0/0 columns. It showed one confirmed case, although that individual had been out of state for five or six weeks and simply had a legal address in the county, says Steve Krager, deputy health officer for a fivecounty region that includes Pacific.
Then on April 18 and 19, the county announced two more positives, both residents. They quarantined at home.
Pacific County has the second-highest percentage of second-home owners in the state. They often vacation at their Long Beach Peninsula properties.
(San Juan County has the highest percentage of such owners. According to that county’s assessor, a remarkable 50% of its real property parcels have out-of-county addresses for tax payments.)
In Pacific County, the assessor’s office says 40% of properties have out-of-county addresses, 49.5% for homes along the peninsula.
The full-time residents got upset as tourists and secondhome owners kept arriving.
“Why are these people disregarding the stay at home guidance and possibly endangering our lives?” asks Bonnie Cozby, at 67, a 27-year-peninsula resident. She’s president of the Ocean Park Area Chamber of Commerce. “Well, it’s becoming a bit too much.”
Yes, Pacific County’s tourist brochure advertises the 28-mile-long Long Beach Peninsula as a place where you can “breathe in the fresh salt air” and take off your shoes and “walk on the cool sand.” Its little towns are dotted with shops and cafes catering to visitors.
For the tourists, it promotes everything from oyster and clam fests to a kite festival and weekend summer fests. At Long Beach, an arch across a road to the beach proclaims, “World’s Longest Beach,” a bit of an exaggeration. At 150 miles, Praia do Cassino Beach in Brazil has that honor, says WorldAtlas.com.
Then came the virus.
“It’s not like we can put a gate across Highway 101,” the highway to the coast, says Frank Wolfe, one of three county commissioners.
“Last thing we need”
Frank Lehn administers the Long Beach Peninsula Friends of Facebook page.
Comments got so nasty that on April 19, Lehn wrote that he’d no longer post COVID-19 updates. About the vitriol, Lehn wrote, “The purpose of this group is and always has been to show the world what a great place this is to live and visit. From what I’ve seen lately, if I didn’t already live here I’m not sure I’d want to, or visit either.”
To discourage visitors, on March 22 the county shut down all road access to the beach. That led the state Department of Fish and Wildlife to close the famous razor clam-digging season through April and probably May.
It was “difficult for us to go forward with a razor-clam opener if folks couldn’t get to the beach,” says Dan Ayres, coastal shellfish manager.
Plus, on that same day, the county issued an order telling hotels, motels, Airbnbs, RV parks and all other “hospitality lodging” to cease operations.
Wolfe has a ready quote: “If you live in Seattle, you stay in Seattle. If you live in Portland, you stay in Portland.” The latter is a little over two hours away.
What particularly upset locals was the crowds that showed up the weekend of March 21. That following Monday, Gov. Jay Inslee issued his stay-at-home directive.
“The weather was nice, and it meant a lot of people from outside the county coming and crowding the beaches and the grocery stores. People were worried about essential supplies,” says health officer Krager.
At age 70, Wolfe, the county commissioner, can relate very well to the worries of many of the area’s residents.
“We have an aging population. We have a fair number of people who came here to retire. The last thing we need is someone bringing the virus here, leave some droplets on the counter, and let them spread the virus around the community,” says Wolfe.
People age 50 and over account for 54% of Pacific County’s population. That’s compared to 32% for King County.
Hurt feelings
There are two small hospitals in Pacific County, and they are meant to stabilize patients so they can be taken to a facility that can provide acute care.
Ocean Beach Hospital has three short-term ventilators that’d be used to transport a patient, according to the Washington State Hospital Association.
Willapa Harbor Hospital has one long-term ventilator and one short-term ventilator.
Hence the anonymous leaflet left on the cars.
Stephanie Graves, manager of Kiss of Mist Espresso in Ocean Park, says some visitors don’t realize the impact they could have.
“They have the best of intentions and think that because they brought food, and don’t plan on spending time with other people, that we’re safe,” she says.
“What they’re not understanding is that every cup of coffee they buy with cash, every $20 bill worth of fuel they’re getting for their drive home from their day trip, every time they stop for a snack and use a card that goes into a machine, potentially passes the virus to the next person.”
On Facebook pages, and in the comments on the website of the Chinook Observer, the local weekly, the postings have at times become impassioned.
One comment, by Karen Kilpatrick, of Yakima, generated 109 responses.
“My husband and I have spent thousands of dollars in your community in the last 40 years … After reading how your community has responded with very unkind posts about ‘tourists,’ I will be spending my money elsewhere in the future. I’m sure this doesn’t bother you,” she wrote.
Kilpatrick, 68, is a retired office clerk. Her husband, Larry Kilpatrick, is a retired Yakima cop.
Her feelings were genuinely hurt.
But as one of the commenters posted, “if your feelings got hurt! Too bad!” The commenter went on, “I saw a huge motor home bus pulling a full-size truck, with out of state plates! Sure, they might have their own property, but you think they have enough supplies in that motor home for a 2-week quarantine? probably not!”
Kilpatrick remembers all the good times her family had on the peninsula, traveling there with their five kids, and in recent years, with grandkids.
A couple of years, she says, the family spent $1,000 for three nights at an oceanside inn just so they could view the Fourth of July fireworks.
Well, she says, “Long Beach isn’t the only place in the world.” Time to find a new spot.
For someone such as Heather Campbell, who runs a one-woman store in Ilwaco called Purly Shell Fiber Arts, what’s happened to her community has been a harrowing journey. It’s tourists who buy her yarns and fibers for crocheting and knitting.
She shut down her business March 14.
“I felt completely defeated,” she says. “I went home and cried.”
Then her hope was renewed.
Her shop has a website and is on Facebook and Instagram. Those same tourists began ordering online.
Campbell has to push those yarns daily on social media, but, she says, she’s gained back 40% of her business.
Those tourists, she says, “Have a real sense of ownership, even if they don’t live here. People who loved to visit called, emailed and sent funds.”
But for Kilpatrick, it’s still too sensitive to think about returning to the peninsula when this is all over.
“It really upset me,” she says about those social media comments typed out in a few seconds.
Erik Lacitis: 206-464-2237 or
elacitis@seattletimes.com; on
On April 10, Pacific County left the 0/0 columns. It showed one confirmed case, although that individual had been out of state for five or six weeks and simply had a legal address in the county, says Steve Krager, deputy health officer for a fivecounty region that includes Pacific.
Then on April 18 and 19, the county announced two more positives, both residents. They quarantined at home.
Pacific County has the second-highest percentage of second-home owners in the state. They often vacation at their Long Beach Peninsula properties.
(San Juan County has the highest percentage of such owners. According to that county’s assessor, a remarkable 50% of its real property parcels have out-of-county addresses for tax payments.)
In Pacific County, the assessor’s office says 40% of properties have out-of-county addresses, 49.5% for homes along the peninsula.
The full-time residents got upset as tourists and secondhome owners kept arriving.
“Why are these people disregarding the stay at home guidance and possibly endangering our lives?” asks Bonnie Cozby, at 67, a 27-year-peninsula resident. She’s president of the Ocean Park Area Chamber of Commerce. “Well, it’s becoming a bit too much.”
Yes, Pacific County’s tourist brochure advertises the 28-mile-long Long Beach Peninsula as a place where you can “breathe in the fresh salt air” and take off your shoes and “walk on the cool sand.” Its little towns are dotted with shops and cafes catering to visitors.
For the tourists, it promotes everything from oyster and clam fests to a kite festival and weekend summer fests. At Long Beach, an arch across a road to the beach proclaims, “World’s Longest Beach,” a bit of an exaggeration. At 150 miles, Praia do Cassino Beach in Brazil has that honor, says WorldAtlas.com.
Then came the virus.
“It’s not like we can put a gate across Highway 101,” the highway to the coast, says Frank Wolfe, one of three county commissioners.
“Last thing we need”
Frank Lehn administers the Long Beach Peninsula Friends of Facebook page.
Comments got so nasty that on April 19, Lehn wrote that he’d no longer post COVID-19 updates. About the vitriol, Lehn wrote, “The purpose of this group is and always has been to show the world what a great place this is to live and visit. From what I’ve seen lately, if I didn’t already live here I’m not sure I’d want to, or visit either.”
To discourage visitors, on March 22 the county shut down all road access to the beach. That led the state Department of Fish and Wildlife to close the famous razor clam-digging season through April and probably May.
It was “difficult for us to go forward with a razor-clam opener if folks couldn’t get to the beach,” says Dan Ayres, coastal shellfish manager.
Plus, on that same day, the county issued an order telling hotels, motels, Airbnbs, RV parks and all other “hospitality lodging” to cease operations.
Wolfe has a ready quote: “If you live in Seattle, you stay in Seattle. If you live in Portland, you stay in Portland.” The latter is a little over two hours away.
What particularly upset locals was the crowds that showed up the weekend of March 21. That following Monday, Gov. Jay Inslee issued his stay-at-home directive.
“The weather was nice, and it meant a lot of people from outside the county coming and crowding the beaches and the grocery stores. People were worried about essential supplies,” says health officer Krager.
At age 70, Wolfe, the county commissioner, can relate very well to the worries of many of the area’s residents.
“We have an aging population. We have a fair number of people who came here to retire. The last thing we need is someone bringing the virus here, leave some droplets on the counter, and let them spread the virus around the community,” says Wolfe.
People age 50 and over account for 54% of Pacific County’s population. That’s compared to 32% for King County.
Hurt feelings
There are two small hospitals in Pacific County, and they are meant to stabilize patients so they can be taken to a facility that can provide acute care.
Ocean Beach Hospital has three short-term ventilators that’d be used to transport a patient, according to the Washington State Hospital Association.
Willapa Harbor Hospital has one long-term ventilator and one short-term ventilator.
Hence the anonymous leaflet left on the cars.
Stephanie Graves, manager of Kiss of Mist Espresso in Ocean Park, says some visitors don’t realize the impact they could have.
“They have the best of intentions and think that because they brought food, and don’t plan on spending time with other people, that we’re safe,” she says.
“What they’re not understanding is that every cup of coffee they buy with cash, every $20 bill worth of fuel they’re getting for their drive home from their day trip, every time they stop for a snack and use a card that goes into a machine, potentially passes the virus to the next person.”
On Facebook pages, and in the comments on the website of the Chinook Observer, the local weekly, the postings have at times become impassioned.
One comment, by Karen Kilpatrick, of Yakima, generated 109 responses.
“My husband and I have spent thousands of dollars in your community in the last 40 years … After reading how your community has responded with very unkind posts about ‘tourists,’ I will be spending my money elsewhere in the future. I’m sure this doesn’t bother you,” she wrote.
Kilpatrick, 68, is a retired office clerk. Her husband, Larry Kilpatrick, is a retired Yakima cop.
Her feelings were genuinely hurt.
But as one of the commenters posted, “if your feelings got hurt! Too bad!” The commenter went on, “I saw a huge motor home bus pulling a full-size truck, with out of state plates! Sure, they might have their own property, but you think they have enough supplies in that motor home for a 2-week quarantine? probably not!”
Kilpatrick remembers all the good times her family had on the peninsula, traveling there with their five kids, and in recent years, with grandkids.
A couple of years, she says, the family spent $1,000 for three nights at an oceanside inn just so they could view the Fourth of July fireworks.
Well, she says, “Long Beach isn’t the only place in the world.” Time to find a new spot.
For someone such as Heather Campbell, who runs a one-woman store in Ilwaco called Purly Shell Fiber Arts, what’s happened to her community has been a harrowing journey. It’s tourists who buy her yarns and fibers for crocheting and knitting.
She shut down her business March 14.
“I felt completely defeated,” she says. “I went home and cried.”
Then her hope was renewed.
Her shop has a website and is on Facebook and Instagram. Those same tourists began ordering online.
Campbell has to push those yarns daily on social media, but, she says, she’s gained back 40% of her business.
Those tourists, she says, “Have a real sense of ownership, even if they don’t live here. People who loved to visit called, emailed and sent funds.”
But for Kilpatrick, it’s still too sensitive to think about returning to the peninsula when this is all over.
“It really upset me,” she says about those social media comments typed out in a few seconds.
Erik Lacitis: 206-464-2237 or
elacitis@seattletimes.com; on
21 comments:
Some people just don't get it...life and death...think about it...life and death...there is nothing that can explain how dangerous it is for ANYBODY to travel from where they are to the peninsula. There is no argument that can be made when LIFE & DEATH are at stake.
The covidiots who travel here from Portland or Seattle or wherever can keep their damn money...it does me no good if I'm dead because you brought the virus here!!!
There has always been a certain element among rural property owners who have felt great suspicion and hostility toward "outsiders" and "city folk". Most people who live rurally prefer not living in heavily populated areas. Their lifestyle is fashioned to avoid frequent trips to the city, and sacrifices are made to live more independently.
The reality is, living off the sea or the land has become less common in a modern world, and clearly tourism and selling realty to "outsiders" has become entirely critical to most full-time resident's lives on the peninsula. For most of the retired full-time residents, employment in urban areas has made their retirement in Surfside or elsewhere on the peninsula possible.
So everyone who pays taxes in Pacific County has a claim to basic rights of ownership. In the short-term, the Governor's "stay-at-home" order is our only possible defense against the Pandemic virus, along with learning how to protect ourselves against germs transmitted from others in public. Grocery store clerks have taken to wearing masks and stores have installed barriers at the checkstands, with the awareness that we have no timeline by which to gauge the passing of the danger we face.
With the exception of the Seattle and Tacoma areas, most of our state has been spared widespread infections. But the prospect that widespread testing will soon be taking place is doubtful, and there is no known effective treatment or vaccine, so uncertainty about the health of people we meet is going to be a long-term factor we must ALL come to terms with, including Pacific County full-time residents.
As strange as it is to accept, we are pretty well guaranteed that we all will be needing to employ defensive mechanisms (masks, sanitizer,...)long-term to protect ourselves in public. We should accept that in order to maintain any semblance of what we had before this Pandemic began, businesses will have to adapt to a new reality, that anyone can be a carrier of this disease, and it isn't likely to go away entirely, anytime soon.
Property owners are not prevented from visiting their Long Beach property to do necessary annual maintenance, and check security. Other restrictions are likely to ease in the next couple of months. But the specter of deadly viral diseases is clearly a permanent factor in living in the 21st century, and for all of us, Covid 19 will remain a threat so long as there is no vaccine to prevent it.
The entire economy of the area is dependent on the part-time owner's tax dollars, and routine purchases. So government services, newspapers, grocery stores, and businesses of every kind will cease to exist on the peninsula, unless ALL residents in Pacific County become accustomed to following precautionary measures and accepting that there will be NO economy without accommodating owners of recreational properties and guests from everywhere on the globe.
We have owned property owners in Ocean Park since 2009. And during that time have invested quite a bit of money in the area. I guess since we are banned from coming down and enjoying our property maybe we should just quit paying our property taxes? Had always thought about retiring to the area but all of your negative comments are making us think twice.
Julie Boss
Julie, I think most of the people who live here full time, are good people who want to do the right thing. There are a few that I know of in Surfside, who are proven to be selfish. I try to not be one of them, and fight them as best I can. Some may take that as negative. I really try to see both sides of this and other issues. I wish I could just have positive things to post, but the positive things are not the problem. This virus seems to be bringing out the most good and most bad in people.
I think this is still a good place to retire and we have to fight to keep it that way. I hope that in time, this will all pass.
Thank you for your comment 12:57. That's the first time I have seen the term covidiots, which does seem appropriate in some cases.
Bottom line, as the letter sent out by the county said, if you are traveling down to the coast or anywhere you are going against the stay at home order from the Governor and are considered violators. Yet these violators are trying to excuse their behavior by putting the blame on us. Many part timers and family members of peninsula residents are doing the right thing and are staying away. If they can do it there is no excuse for those who don't
This has nothing to do with being rural and having hostility towards "city folk". In fact there is a fairly large population here that have lived in the cities. It's about doing the right thing and following the guidelines to get through this. One of the reasons it hasn't been widespread IS because the majority of our citizens are doing just that. Unfortunately you will still have those who won't.
Every day there is another news report that the sequelae continues to show just how devastating this virus is to the human body. We still don't know how deadly this virus is even to those who have had it and "recovered".
Now we find out that domestic animals are capable of contracting the virus just from sniffing your shoes after you return from the grocery store or gas station. I haven't read anything that says you can get the virus from your dog or cat, but I think we have to assume that's a real possibility.
As you all know, this virus is deadly to some who contract it, and those lucky enough to survive the damage done may show it is a slow killer for them as well. The sequelae may still kill them later on, we just don't know.
Now we see some area's that are itching to open businesses and get the economy started. I get it, people need food and pay bills. The stimulus checks are suppose to help but nobody knows who or when people will receive the money. And obviously it's not near enough but better than nothing.
At some point people will realize just how deadly this virus is and how easily it spreads...as the death count continues to climb, as the hospitals become overwhelmed, as businesses run out of supplies...only then will people grasp that by traveling from one area to another they were the problem...that the choices they made killed people.
There has also been a trend in the real estate market - rural properties are increasing in value with city dwellers developing a new appreciation for personal space. I wonder how this may sift down to us as our part=time residents reconsider where they want to live. Maybe more HOA voters and more involvement in the SHOA balance of power issues? Glass half full or half empty?
The point is, we are not really going to "get through this". Without testing, there has been no practical means of tracking infection, and without a nationwide policy of mitigation, the virus will continue.
There's no doubt that peninsula residents travel to urban areas from time to time. With all of the businesses closed but a few in the area, out-of-towners are likely to be part-time residents who plan to be sequestered in place on their property. People won't be mingling, and except for basic supplies such as groceries, full-time locals aren't at all likely to encounter part-timers.
To be realistic, there will cease to be any base for an economy on the peninsula, and no way to make a living, if waiting for the end of the Pandemic. No excuses here, just realistic about what a long haul we are faced with, the nation having been totally unprepared for what experts have been warning about for years. Warnings as early as Dec. about Covid 19 were shrugged off.
Everyone needs to be using precautions when going to shop anywhere. This is a long term challenge to every community, and while the majority of part-timers are conscientious, they aren't going to stay away from their property long term, allowing their property to fall into disrepair, when in most cases, they can visit without needing to impact the community one iota.
How typical that the most vehement comments come from someone posting as anonymous. Afraid you will lose a few friends if people know who you are?
Julie Boss
I have always appreciated the sacrifices my grandparents had to make and thankful I didn't have to live through the times they did. But after reading the comments from Karen of Yakima, some here along with others on the news I now fully understand why they were known as and always will be the Greatest Generation. They had to deal with a world war along with rationing and other issues at home. Meanwhile some people today can't even make the simple "sacrifice" to stay home and watch TV.
George, your are allowing anonymous comments! Why? You should remove any comment without a proper name.
Anonymous huh ? Can't even identify your comments with a name when requested. There is no "greatest generation". Immigrants sacrificed a great deal to settle in North America, native Americans sacrificed a great deal in the process. Each era has had its' own challenges of great magnitude. The number of known Covid cases in Pacific County is about 4 after several weeks of infections in the state. Obviously, there is no basis to assume that careless people from outside the County are bringing illness to the County, let alone the peninsula.
For the time being, the Gov. has extended the stay-at-home order to mid-May I believe. (That does not prevent travel deemed necessary). The challenge to the County is, how and when should businesses be allowed to re-open ? I suspect that if the numbers stay about the same, the County will open about that time. The Seattle area may take longer. But businesses need to conduct business to survive, and those who have been employed in the County need to work to survive.
We are much more fortunate than much of the nation. With a modicum of precaution and risk, we can struggle to find a new normal, the only option until a vaccine is developed and tested.
The Greatest Generation is a term used to describe those Americans who grew up during the Great Depression and fought in World War II, or whose labor helped win it. The Greatest Generation members also tend to be the parents of the Baby Boomer generation. So yes there is a "greatest generation".
Nobody said people from outside Pacific county were careless. Anybody who made the decision to leave where they were and travel to the peninsula made that decision knowing that it was a RISK. They didn't care they could be responsible for actually killing somebody. They weighed the RISK and made a conscious decision to ignore the order to stay-in-place for what? To check on their 2nd property? I doubt it. They knew the peninsula, at that time, had zero confirmed cases...and no doubt where they were had confirmed cases. They made a decision to head for the beach playing the odds they wouldn't bring the virus with them, and, they wouldn't kill anybody.
It's possible the virus is much more pronounced in Pacific county than the reported 4 cases. They have started testing 1st responders and others with symptoms and I find it very unsettling that they are not publishing those results. My guess is they have not tested that many people with the drive-thru testing. How many test kits do they have? How long does it take to get the results? What happens when those test results come back positive? Are they also testing for antibodies?
Businesses and people "should" be receiving stimulus checks to help them hang on until we get past this pandemic. I know I do not feel safe enough to go shopping for non-essentials. I sure hope this is NOT the new normal...
I don't mean any disrespect toward anyone in my statement. My Dad and all of my Uncles served in WWII, so the Fathers of my generation. I just don't see there needing to be a rating system, though it does seem that the degree to which the nation threw all of its' efforts into the War is quite amazing in magnitude, and worthy of the moniker "Greatest Generation".
I believe that the Dustbowl years and the Depression saw the Nation unite to survive, and work together to find new possibilities, and with strong leadership from FDR and others, the nation had a new identity and united sense of purpose. It is hard to imagine that degree of participation and dedication in today's USA.
But from other perspectives, other periods in American history have had particular significance, their own heroes, sacrifices and accomplishments. Am. Revolution, Civil War, Korean War, anti-segregation efforts of the '60s, Vietnam, Mid East crises...
This is a different kind of challenge. I just don't think people should let fear dominate over existing information. We still will need to find solutions. There have been a lot of assurances from the Fed. Gov. about hospital bills and lost wages, promises of small business relief - that have no basis in reality as of yet.
It will be a challenge to figure out how to proceed from here. What we do not have currently is strong leadership of a National effort, or the entire Country committed to working toward the same solutions. An interesting point was made on the news by an Economics expert, that one reason Southern states are willing to ignore the national standards outlined to re-open businesses, is that they don't want to pay all of these people unemployment. Here again, the Fed has assured that All citizens should receive unemployment, but the systems in many states are not well funded, and unemployment wages are minimal. Florida is a case in point.
Hey SSB, see you all next week. We are coming down for the week or so to enjoy our beach property and the beach. take everyone.
It appears there are a lot of irresponsible people in this world, and 5:30PM is one of them. No regard for the Governors stay at home orders or the welfare of others during the spread of a deadly vires. By the way the beach is closed.
It aint closed Russ, if you can walk to it it is open, I just took a nice long stroll the other day. There were many locals there enjoying it too, just like me...we waived at each other from a safe distance of course.
To act like the circumstances are a joke, and show disrespect for everyone's concerns shows you don't have a firm grasp of the situation. You do have a right to visit your property, but as a part-time resident you should be prepared to wear a cloth mask when going to the grocery or hardware, and minimize your contacts with others.
Technically, you should have a better reason to not stay home than just going to the beach. As a part-timer, I accept that these are different times, and we need to limit our contacts as that's our only defense collectively, to stay well and do no harm to others. Currently, the Governor's restrictions are extended just through May 3rd. That may change. Washington and Oregon have done well to minimize the damage, so with continued caution, the peninsula may be spared.
And yet you still feel it is ok to travel here which is against the Governors request. So that makes you or anyone else a violator. Not technically, but actually.
Read your own remark, "GOVERNOR'S REQUEST, not order. People will still live their lives. If Washington, Oregon, or California had Republican governors that ordered stay at home, Antifa would have been out protesting the same day.
The first documented case of the virus in the State was Feb 29th I believe. Since that time, nearly a million cases have been documented in the nation, and 50,000 people have died of the illness. Pacific County has had 4 documented cases, 2 of which occurred out-of-state, and adjacent Counties have little incidence.
All short term rentals including hotels are closed, all restaurants are closed, and nearly all businesses are closed. what the hell are you so anxious about ? Where do you think you will come in close contact with other people ? How would you know if they are full-time residents ?
Part-time residents are not prevented from visiting their properties if they deem it necessary to visit them. Because you have no idea who you may encounter momentarily in the grocery store or one of the few other businesses still open, everyone should wear cloth masks, and practice distancing. And stop freaking out over nothing ! Visitors are clearly not bringing disease to Pacific County. The virus will exist well after a vaccine is developed, so chill and use caution in public, and expect to do so long-term.
It is a certainty that Pac. Co. residents have been leaving the County at times, and when they do so they should be prepared to take precautions as described. Stick with reality and you'll live longer.
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