When life as we knew it slammed to a sudden stop in mid-March of 2020, the novel coronavirus from Wuhan hadn’t yet infected a single resident of Western North Carolina, but with the virus continually expanding its territory since the United States’ first confirmed case on Jan. 21, 2020, it seemed only a matter of time.
Buncombe County confirmed its first case March 16 the patient was a visitor from New York who then traveled to Macon County to isolate followed by Cherokee County March 18. A part-time resident of Jackson County tested positive on March 23, and Haywood County reported its first cases on April 2. Testing from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians confirmed the first cases in Swain and Graham counties on April 25 and 26.
Katlin Roberts masks up for teaching. Donated photo
Katlin Roberts was making coronavirus contingency plans before most people in the United States had even really heard of COVID-19. By February, she’d grown concerned enough to walk into her principal’s office and ask what would happen if the disease spread to Cherokee. They’d take precautions, she was told, but certainly wouldn’t send students home.
“Less than a month later in March was when the decision was made to close the school,” said Roberts. “I don’t think anybody could have predicted when we started having cases in the United States and even in the South that this level of school closure and business closure would occur. It felt a little surreal for me personally.”
A September 2020 Yelp study found that 800 small businesses are closing every day in the United States.
More data is needed to fully understand the scope of the pandemic s impact, but it s incredible to watch people beat the odds. Some Bay Area business owners have managed to adapt by making masks or starting something like a distance picnic company. Joe Haley and Mustafa Oberi started their company ParcNiks SF, to give people a safe space to eat outdoors and do it in style.
Lennotch Taplett, owner of LUXGROOM, also found a way to thrive in our new environment. For the past dozen or so years, I ve owned a barbershop in downtown Union Square and you know business was great, Taplett said. The pandemic really changed how I had to go about doing things. With the uncertainty of the opening and the closures, the best idea for me was to ask myself, How do I get my business back to my clients? A mobile barbershop was the perfect solution.
Living Through A Pandemic Year One
Think back to 2019. Back when things were normal. Back when masks were only for Halloween, or for bank robbers. Back when social distancing was mostly for people who’d recently eaten ramps. Back when the biggest story in Western North Carolina was about a congressman who decided not to seek re-election.
Chinese physicians increasingly noted patients presenting with strange, flu-like symptoms. As 2020 dawned, what was then called Wuhan SARS began to spread throughout Southeast Asia. On Jan. 21, a man in his 30s in Snohomish, Washington, became the first case of COVID-19 diagnosed in the United States. By the end of the month, almost 12,000 cases would be diagnosed worldwide.
Zach Sorrells repairs the gutters at Sylva Town Hall. Donated photo
When meetings moved to Zoom and schools shut down last March, Zach Sorrells kept on reporting to work. As a maintenance worker with the Town of Sylva, he’s responsible for jobs that simply must get done, pandemic or no like trash collection, for instance.
Overnight, it seemed, the coronavirus went from being the faraway concern of faraway people to a present danger that prompted massive lockdowns and reduced the normally busy streets to empty corridors “definitely some eerie stuff,” said Sorrells.
It was weird, but not outright scary. At least, not scary enough to make him think twice about going to work. Besides, the empty streets made it a lot easier to maneuver the large trucks.