It's the start of Mud Season in New Hampshire. The temperature is rising and the snow drifts are melting rapidly leaving piles of dirt and road
sand in their place. In normal times tourism would also be on the wane,
the last of the spring skiers departing with the winter.To get more news
about
slogan for coronavirus, you can visit shine news official website.
But while the threat of coronavirus has ended commercial tourism in the
region, people are still travelling to the state hoping to ride out the
pandemic in their holiday homes and take advantage of the region's
outdoor activities.
"Don't come to New Hampshire," says Dot Seybold, general manager of OVP Management which oversees the Settlers Green
retail centres in North Conway.
"I see it in my own neighbourhood where normally I don't see people in
these [holiday] homes except during holidays - and they're all full now.
I get it. What would you do for your family? But they're not thinking
about our little community and how we will struggle to help people if
this thing gets as bad as New York."
Many people seem confused by conflicting advice to get fresh air and exercise while adhering to official orders to stay at home.
The Appalachian Mountain Club said popular locations have been overrun
with visitors while other organisations in New Hampshire have reported
hundreds of cars with out-of-state license plates crowding parking spots
at trail heads. Many facilities and trails have now been closed.
We're all trying to process this on a day to day basis," says Janice
Crawford, executive director of the Mount Washington Valley Chamber of
Commerce.
"I have a mission to support the business community and keep them
viable. This is a challenge during this time. [In mid-March] we sent out
a press release inviting people to come and enjoy the outdoors. That
was a misstep - but it was done honestly and we corrected it
immediately."
At the end of March, New Hampshire had recorded 367 cases of coronavirus
and three deaths compared to thousands in New York. With its state
slogan "live free or die", New Hampshire is known for its libertarian
values and it was the last state in the northeast to officially tell
residents to stay at home.
But many businesses were already closing in an effort to slow the rate
of infections and discourage visitors. Most businesses - for now -
appear to support the economic pain if it means containing the pandemic.
"It's coming, and if you don't stop to flatten the curve it's going to
be that much worse," says Danny Rassi, owner of two restaurants - Wicked
Fresh and Fire by Wicked Fresh.
"As a business owner who's responsible for multiple people, I can't do
it. I can't bring my people in here and put them at risk. It makes it
hard but at the end of the day if we all do it, we're all going to be on
the same boat economically.Gary Sullivan, owner of the White Mountain
Hotel says laying off his staff has been the hardest part of the crisis
so far - but he hopes the hotel can reopen in the summer.
"I'm looking at our summer bookings and they're not cancelling. We have
strong summer bookings and super strong bookings for the Fall.
"At least [the shutdown] is keeping most people healthy and if people
remain healthy, we will remain positive," he says.Some smaller
establishments had already closed, but in an effort to stave off the
economic blow to his staff Mr Delaney stayed open until 16 March when
New Hampshire ordered restaurants to close their seating areas and offer
only takeout meals.
"I felt like we were doing the wrong thing by staying open - but I was really worried about my staff."
He thinks the restrictions are necessary but is concerned about the long-term consequences.
"If this thing goes to June it will be catastrophic. There will be
places that definitely won't make it. It's a tough ethical question
professionally and personally," he says.
