CLEARWATER, Fla. — Despite the health threat posed by COVID-19, thousands of people crowded area beaches this Labor Day.
Some beach visitors said they had strategies that included getting there early, trying to social distance, and in some cases, just turning around and heading home after not seeing what they liked.
Margie Rodriguez is originally from Brooklyn, where a trip to the beach is a Labor Day tradition marking the end of summer. Not even COVID-19 could keep the native New Yorker away from the beach on Labor Day.
“I was pretty determined because for me it’s always the last weekend of the summer. For me to really to come out and get some good sun,” Rodriguez said. “So, yeah, I was determined to come out early, beat the crowd, have fun and go home.”
Rodriguez and her husband showed up early and picked a spot at least 30 feet away from anyone else at Gandy Beach.
But if it started to pack in – their plan was to pack up.
“We’ve been very cautious for the last six months so, why be unsafe,” she said. “If people start coming, I will leave.”
On Clearwater Beach, people started showing up well before noon.
“You know, people are getting back to normal,” said Rebecca McGrane, a local who visits the beach just about every week if possible. “Feeling more safe and secure."
But the threat of rain and images of overcrowding might have motivated some to make an early day if it.
There were far fewer warning signs than had been posted earlier this summer. Fewer police officers patrolling the beach. And some face masks, but not enough people taking precautions for the Evans family, who’d driven to Clearwater from Ocala for the day.
“It doesn’t look like people are taking it seriously like they think it’s over or something,” Mrs. Evans said.
The couple turned around and headed back after a brief walk along the sidewalk leading up to the sand.
The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office did not re-activate its beach crowd dashboard for the holiday weekend, but before noon, several parking areas in Clearwater and along the Courtney Campbell causeway had already reached capacity.
With a million people expected to have flown into Florida for the Labor Day weekend, and the majority of them visiting the Tampa Bay area, public health experts issued an early morning urging people to maintain social distance.
Whether the crowds that gathered translate into another spike in COVID-19 cases for our region, they say, won’t be known for another three to four weeks.
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