The sky is gray and the ocean of the same ink. Whipped by the wind, the rescuers of the Bethany Beach Patrol are refrigerated on their perches arranged every two hundred meters, facing the salty rollers that carry the dark spots of bodyboarders. Bad weather is the ally of the rules of physical distancing, this Sunday, May 24. Few indeed venture onto this wave-battered Delaware beach.
For weeks, access to this straight tongue of sand has been strictly regulated, the fight against the Covid-19 requires. "The beach was closed from March 22 to May 15, says Joe Donnely, head of the municipal lifeguard team, then it reopened only for walkers and for those who came to exercise. These restrictions were lifted yesterday, now everyone can come, as long as they are not on top of each other ”. The team took advantage of the closure to integrate directives related to the virus from local emergency departments, as well as the state’s health department. "We are ready", assures Joe Donnely.
He wears an artisan mask dedicated to an intergalactic saga. All other lifeguards are also equipped, but wearing this protection is not compulsory on the sand, only encouraged. It is a different story for the boardwalk that stretches along the ocean. Municipal police are camping across the main street from this small resort to enforce this rule.
"It's a little sad"
Bad weather explains the deserted beach, but the Covid-19 is solely responsible for the strange climate prevailing in the row of shops that leads to the Atlantic. Take-out keeps the restaurants a bit busy, but the heart isn't quite there. Bryn's job as a decorator, Su Casa, is to permanently limit the number of customers in the store to five. And each person who enters it is asked to rub their hands with a hydroalcoholic solution.
"It's a little sad, assures the young woman, we are Memorial Day weekend (the day in honor of all the fallen American soldiers which marks the start of the summer season for the Americans), but we don't have more visitors than a weekday. " Bry, who studies outside of Delaware, had to comply with the regulatory quarantine when moving to Bethany Beach for the summer. All the events scheduled to start the season have been canceled, the Poseidon Festival, renowned for its crab races, as the annual craft exhibition devoted to the arts of the sea. Nothing will resume before July 15, at the earliest.
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