In a Western adventure destination, reopening met with cautious optimism
Tracy Bentley had already stocked up her bike shop in Moab, Utah, and hired seasonal staff when businesses shut down in mid-March to prevent the coronavirus from spreading there. The town of just over 5,000 has a small hospital but no intensive care unit, and local officials were worried that their healthcare system would be overrun as adventure sports enthusiasts flocked to the town after Colorado's ski resorts shut down because of the virus.
Moab, one of many Western towns with economies that are almost entirely tourism-based, is close to Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park, both of which reopened Friday. With easy access to rock climbing, mountain biking and off-road driving, the town regularly hosts 3 million visitors a year.
Emily Niehaus has been Moab's mayor since 2018. She said the town rallied together around the shutdown measures in mid-March, taking a financial hit to keep the coronavirus from spreading. But reopening has been more divisive. "I was thinking we wouldn't have any real business until the end of the summer," Bentley said."I'm just seeing that as a positive, because I really didn't expect us to be able to be operating at the level that we are right now."
Gus Griffin, a manager at the local food bank, helps provide food to many of the same people who are most vulnerable to the coronavirus. He said he's not sure whether there's a way to protect seniors and immunocompromised people in Moab if the virus starts to spread.
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