Where are all the tourists? In the Florida Keys, they haven’t gone anywhere — yet

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Like the rest of the world, leaders of the Florida Keys have called for a halt to public gatherings to help stem the spread of COVID-19.

They’ve closed bars and nightclubs, restricted how many people can be in a restaurant, shut down beaches, parks and fundraising events.

In Key West, the mayor even went above and beyond a Florida mandate, and ordered all restaurants to stop serving people on the premises. Only takeout and delivery are allowed.

But the orders from on high have not stopped tourists from coming, staying — and partying, even if that breaks the rules.

For now, but maybe not for long, they’re also filling the hotels and driving up and down the Overseas Highway to get here and there.

“From what I can tell, we have more here than I actually expected,” said Kevin Theriault, of the Key West Business Guild, which promotes LGBTQ travel to Key West. “I expect of course in the coming days for that to decrease. There’s not really going to be anything for them to do other to stay in the hotel..”

But, by driving down U.S. 1, the only major road that strings together the 125-mile long island chain, it’s hard to believe there’s a worldwide pandemic going on.

“We’re the recipients of all the other closures,” said Mike Forster, an Islamorada village councilman and the owner of the popular local restaurant Mangrove Mike’s.

He’s referring to other places in Florida that have closed, including Walt Disney Word, Universal Studios and the cruise ships in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Key West.

Forster’s business has complied with Gov. Ron DeSantis’ executive order for restaurants to space their seating six feet apart. But still, the restaurateur said, “We’ve been crazy busy.”

Naturally, he welcomes the business for himself and his staff. But as a public official, he worries locals and tourists feel a false sense of safety in the Keys because, as of Wednesday, there haven’t been any confirmed cases of COVID-19, which is caused by the novel coronavirus.

Nearly half of total coronavirus cases in Florida are in Miami-Dade and Broward

“All of us know there are cases out there, we just haven’t gotten to them yet,” he said. noting that health officials expect reported cases to ramp up significantly as more testing becomes available.

SERVICE WORKERS

Meanwhile, with bars closed throughout the Keys, and restaurants forced to operate at half capacity, another inevitability is scores of service industry workers out of jobs or working for significantly less pay.

While some bars in Key West flouted the order to close this week, in Key Largo, the iconic Caribbean Club has a sign out front that it is closed for the next 30 days.

“This is going to hurt a lot of people,” said a security guard on a golf cart outside the bayside bar.

To help lessen the blow, Forster is offering all bar staffers in the Upper Keys a free, takeout-only meal Thursday, starting at 9 a.m. Workers must show a pay stub proving they’re employed at an Upper Keys bar.

“Unfortunately, I think we’ll have a very good turnout,” he said.

Some Key West restaurants stayed open past coronavirus cutoff. What happens next?

TOURISM ADVERTISING

While Monroe County officials said this week they have no plans to stop people from coming to the island chain from the mainland, the TDC, a visitor tax-funded organization that markets the Keys to the rest of the world, has ceased all advertising in an effort to lessen the number of visitors.

But county officials said people are visitors are starting to leave at a high rate.

“Key West International Airport reported that there are four times as many people leaving on outbound flights than are arriving on incoming flights,” said Kristen Livengood, a spokeswoman for the county. “There has been a dramatic decrease in passenger arrivals in recent days.”

In the Florida Keys, 21 people have been tested for COVID-19 so far, state says

LOCAL NEED

On Monday, several, mostly older people lined up outside the Burton Memorial United Methodist Church’s food pantry in Tavernier, between Key Largo and Islamorada. The pantry has been feeding the area’s poor for decades, but organizers are preparing to ramp up their operations as more people in the Keys lose their jobs and income.

“We’re seeing an uptick. Since they closed bars and restaurants, you know we’re going to get people,” Betsy Edwards, the food pantry’s administrative assistant, said as she conducted an inventory of supplies.

Those wanting to donate can drop food items off at the ocean side church at mile marker 92.

Frank and Barbara Fechter, part-time Keys residents, or snowbirds, as they’re sometimes known, delivered a car trunk-load of food Wednesday morning.

They said their delivery this week had less to do with the pandemic than it did wanting to lighten their supplies in their Keys home before they head back to New Jersey. They also collect food to drop off from their neighbors.

“A lot of people come for the snow season down here, and as they leave, they have a lot of food left over. As they move, they leave it in a pantry box, and we bring the stuff down,” Frank Fechter said.

The couple would normally think about heading back up to New Jersey soon as spring nears, but their community in the northern part of the state has been particularly hard-hit with COVID-19 cases, so they may stay put for a while.

“My daughter’s a nurse, a hospice nurse, and she called and said, ‘Dad, stay there. It’s really bad,’” Frank said.

Their daughter said a doctor and two nurses where she works are infected.

“She said we’re better off in the fun and the sun,” Barbara Fechter said.

IN MARATHON

In the Middle Keys city of Marathon, which declared a state of emergency earlier in the week to be on the same page with the county and other municipalities, one of its main attractions, Sombrero Beach, is closed. Few people know that the Keys, despite being surrounded by beautiful clear-blue water, has very few of what people would consider beaches.

Sombrero Beach is an exception.

On Thursday, Andy Burlos and Race Jones, stood outside their pickup truck at the beach’s closed entrance preparing to head north. The Clemson University students are in the Keys on spring break, but did not travel by the usual way or with the same plans as many young people intent on partying.

They left South Carolina Sunday with plans to stop along the way to Key West to surf and fish.

Once they made it to the Keys, they wanted to stay for a while, but since they budgeted only enough money to camp for lodging, their plans changed since most campgrounds on the archipelago are closed due to the state of emergency.

“We’re just playing it by ear,” Burlos said. “We’re meeting some friends along the way.”

IN KEY WEST

Key West, like Marathon, declared a state of emergency this week.

Tourist sites including the Southernmost Point buoy and the Sunset Celebration at Mallory Square have been closed. The giant concrete buoy at the Southernmost Point spot at Whitehead and South streets is now covered with a blue tarp and the city put up barricades to keep people off of it.

Also, the cruise ships stopped coming. In February alone, more than 100,000 passengers dropped anchor in Key West for port of call visits.

Then the bars closed Tuesday in the hard-drinking party town, along with many big attractions.

Fury Water Adventures, which employs 200 people, announced it would close for a week starting Thursday to reevaluate things.

Even so, Key West tourists strolled Duval Street, but they ate their takeout food on the curb or outside a bar shuttered per the governor’s orders.

Key West went further than Gov. DeSantis did in limiting restaurant capacity to 50 percent. Mayor Teri Johnston ordered restaurants to close their dining rooms and only do takeout or delivery.

Visitors said they weren’t any more afraid to be in the Keys than at home during the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Bill Pegg, of Valdosta, Georgia, was on vacation in Key West with his wife Cindy. They went diving and boating. On Wednesday afternoon, they were happy to be on Duval getting beverages from a bar stand.

“What’s the difference?” said Pegg, after a lunch of conch ceviche eaten outside the Half Shell Raw Bar, per the mayor’s orders. “It’s the same thing there. We’re washing our hands and not touching our faces and trying to avoid the crowd but still enjoying the Keys.”

“I feel bad for the people who live and work here,” said Cindy Pegg, who was in search of a Tito’s vodka lemonade but couldn’t get one at Lucy’s Retired Surfers Bar. “How are they going to live? It’s crazy.”

Mercedes Bennett, 27, was selling the drinks to the walk-up customers. She’s usually a server, but those days are over for a month due to coronavirus.

“This is hurting. This is the seriously the most difficult, confusing time,” she said.

DeeJay Halligan was helping run her family’s ice cream shop, Tropical Vibes, at 411 Greene St., with her boyfriend, Tyler Peak.

“Yesterday was bad,” Halligan said. “We did like $20 in cash yesterday. It’s rough.”

They also sent their three employees, all high school students, home and decided to only have family work there.

“We made an executive decision,” she said. “Every day is a different day, we just don’t know what’s coming. Are we on the brink of the Great Depression. What’s going to happen down here? Are we going to be the forgotten city?”

Halligan said her neighbors include a bartender, an art gallery owner and a hair stylist.

“We’re all saying, how do we pay rent? Do we pay rent on our business before we pay rent on our house?” Halligan asked. “Rent is extremely high here.”

She said Peak’s dad sanitizes hotel rooms for a living. That sounds like a booming business these days. But all of his contracts have been canceled, Halligan said.

“The hotels don’t have the money to pay him.”