Ephrata folks focus on making it through coronavirus emergency

EPHRATA — On a sunny, mild spring day recently, the guy checking sprinklers at the church on Ivy Street in Ephrata said it was the sort of day he would normally think about getting out his kayak. But not this year.

The woman in her 70s sitting on her front porch on E Street said the efforts to combat the COVID-19 virus have made a substantial change in her neighborhood. There are fewer people walking through the neighborhood and far less interaction between people, she said.

The two were among people in Ephrata talking about their experiences after two and a half weeks of extensive restrictions on movement and businesses and other organizations imposed by Gov. Jay Inslee as part of the effort to combat the pandemic.

The woman on E Street said the restrictions are how life is going right now, but she couldn’t say she liked it. Health issues mean she and her husband are required to stay isolated, she said, and about the only people they have talked to have been their children. But even that has been limited, since the kids bring supplies and leave them outside.

The guy checking sprinklers said he considers the outbreak what he called a gray cloud. He’s in his 60s and retired, so it hasn’t affected him directly, he said, although he was temporarily laid off from his part-time job.

A man in his 40s, doing yard work at his house on C Street, said his family was doing OK, although he had been temporarily laid off from his full-time job. He’s been approved for unemployment benefits, but the flood of applications has meant no one is able to tell him when it will start. While he hopes things will get back to normal — or closer to normal — he kind of expects the shutdowns to affect the entire summer.

The woman on E Street said there has been so much speculation, on television and the internet, that it’s difficult to know what to believe.

The man checking sprinklers said data about the disease is still limited, and as a result, a lot of what’s being said is speculation.

A woman in her 50s, stopping with a friend to enjoy the sunshine on a street corner, said it’s a pretty crazy time. That sentiment was echoed by a woman in her 40s working in her yard on First Avenue. Both women said the current situation was unprecedented in their lifetimes.

Nobody seems to have an answer, the woman working in her yard said, so people just need to maneuver through the best way they know how. She wondered if the outcome of the shutdowns would be good or bad, if people would become more understanding of each other or more guarded with each other.

The stay-at-home order meant contact with other people has been all but eliminated, she said, and the lack of contact is difficult. Working with her two children on their schoolwork, helping out her parents and working in her yard are helping her get through it.

The man checking church sprinklers said it’s easy to get frustrated over the situation but that people need to accept this is where the state and country are right now, and move on from there.