— from Kate Agape-Lichter —
After reading some opinions about the process of “should we open or not yet”, I thought I would drop a few words. I lived on Orcas for 27 years and island life is different, in that you have the ability to step away from the mainland and have some control over your territory. I also have just spent five months living on Kauai, from December through April, and experienced the island behavior there through the beginning fear of a pandemic, beginning cases coming in from the mainland, and the handling of lockdown.
What struck me most about the way Hawaii and the county of Kauai handled it was that, first of all, the spirit of Ohana or family. Everyone is family, and keeping everyone safe is the first priority. So everyone wore masks without complaining, most working people had no jobs for about a month and some even now, as the stay-at-home continues until the end of May. The beaches were empty, people stayed home unless they absolutely had a doctor’s appointment, needed groceries, or got out to exercise.
Mainlanders that still tried to fly in and stay were put in quarantine in their place of residence for two weeks, and if they didn’t abide by that, they were literally tracked down by the police and either fined or sent back to the mainland. People tried to support those restaurants that did take-out so they could survive the closure. Farmer’s Markets were closed, so people made the effort to get farm fruit and vegetables as a pick up to support the farmers…….after all, plants don’t stop growing, do they? Hotel employees, who had no guests at all as tourism and flights were stopped, voluntarily organized free meals once a week that were picked up as drive through. The last delivery while I was there was 1,000 meals.
People took care of people in any way they could. They all knew that shutting down tourism to stop the inflow of COVID-19 was going to reverberate through their economy for years, but the first priority was to keep everyone safe. The highest number of cases was 16, and that is now down to zero.
Kauai, without the crowds of tourists, is about the same population as Orcas. I love Orcas, and it will always seem like a home to me, and I hope that islanders will consider long and hard about the first priority, keeping all your family safe.
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Health first!
Sounds like they had the same number of cases as San Juan County, too.
Thank you, Kate. Let’s follow the wise example of our island neighbors. https://www.hawaiitourismauthority.org/news/alerts/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/
Thank you. I am not only impressed that your Kauai neighbors cared enough about each other to wear masks and keep their distance, but that there was enforcement of the non-essential travel ban. The neighborhood that I live in on Orcas has numerous visitors, some of whom are part-time property owners coming and going from the mainland on a weekly basis. I do not know but guess it is unlikely that they are following quarantine guidelines. I realize that they consider this a relatively safe, beautiful environment to “shelter in place” but they are exposing our isolated island to what they bring from the mainland and putting at risk our very fragile health care system.
This is the same attitude that many tourists will bring if Airbnb’s and other lodging opens. Tourists and many part- time residents who live in other counties do not necessarily share our sense of community or as you call it “Ohana or family”, and seem not to share Orcas islanders care and concern for each other.
Nice letter. The population of Kauai is much larger than Orcas. 71,300 based upon 2010 census data. Orcas is about 5,300.
The state’s stay-in-place order ordinarily would not permit off island residents with local homes to go back and forth: ” … prohibiting all people in Washington State from leaving their homes or participating in social, spiritual and recreational
gatherings of any kind regardless of the number of participants.”
so stephen, island residents can visit the mainland for medical treatment and go to costco for groceries, then return without quarantine.
but an “off island resident’” cannot visit their island residence, despite the fact that they remain obligated to pay SJC property taxes.
please discuss.
Kate, Island do seem to know how to take care of neighbors. On Orcas over the past 10 weeks, the community has invested $786,700 in our local economy through the GiveOrcas campaign and the Community Emergency Response Fund (www.oicf.us). Over 1000 neighbors have donated and that many or more have been helped. We have been able to immediately fill in the gaps, ensuring our community has access to food, shelter, and essential services during this crisis. As this community looks towards reopening, our hope is that we will follow the public health guidelines (wear masks, socially distance, and limit non essential travel) that will allow us to slowly and safely restart our economy. Until then, thank you to everyone who has contributed. Your donations are changing lives for the better.