RVs are lined up at a campground. | AP Photo
TALLAHASSEE— Time could be running out for Jack and Marcia Likens.
They’re living in a camper in Central Florida, their latest stop in a retirement dream-trip to tour the country and national parks. But their freestyle life has been stopped in its tracks by the coronavirus, which has left them with nowhere to go as cities and states pull in the welcome mat. The commercial campground in Eustis where they’re parked hasn’t told them whether they can stay after April 30. Other campgrounds where they had reservations now are closed. They have nowhere to go.
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“It’s scary,” Marcia Likens said. “We’re just trying to stay here because there is no promise we can find another campground.”
Three weeks after Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an order urging Floridians to close their doors and stay at home, a mixed bag of conflicting rules and enforcement has some people bewildered and others, like the Likens, trapped. Even as the DeSantis administration ponders reopening the state economy, people and businesses don’t know what they’re allowed to do and what they aren’t.
For the population of wandering retirees — people most susceptible to the deadly virus — the result has been fear.
The confusion began in late March, when DeSantis closed state park campgrounds and banned new short-term vacation rentals. The Florida Association of RV Parks & Campgrounds at the time said the order didn’t apply to private sites.
Since then, local law enforcement has sent its own mixed messages, with some counties proposing or setting up roadblocks and others taking a more relaxed approach to policing. Six cities and counties have established curfews.
Franklin County Sheriff A.J. Smith has ordered visitors from Georgia — two counties and 70 miles away — to quarantine for two weeks. His deputies are on the prowl for people who have ventured outside for, as Smith sees it, no good reason.
“If you buck up too much we’re going to take you to jail,” Smith said in a video posted to Facebook.
To the south, Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan has taken a softer approach. His officers have been told to document incidents of non-compliance for referral to the state attorney’s office, according to an email the chief sent to his officers obtained by POLITICO.
And two hours east of Tampa, Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood and the 12 police departments within his county are assessing each case individually.
“People are out of work. Am I going to hit you with a $500 fine because you were doing something stupid as opposed to telling you just to go home?” Chitwood told POLITICO. “But if I see you on the street again, then I’ll write you a $500 fine.”
“There are no roadblocks or car stops,” Chitwood said. “There is a Bill of Rights, there is a constitution, and there is due process.”
Monroe County, which includes the Keys, is closed to visitors, including boaters, and has set up checkpoints on U. S. Highway 1 and Card Sound Road. The county has forced boat owners on short-term leases to leave their vessels and marinas, putting them in conflict with stay-at-home orders, said Ed Tillett, editor-in-chief of the Waterway Guide.
The result is “a refugee situation” for people who live on the water, Tillett told POLITICO.
Many boaters who have found a safe place to hunker down will need to move soon no matter what, said Kim Russo, director for America’s Great Loop Cruising Association.
“Most have boat insurance that requires them to be out of Florida by June 1,” she said. “They are starting to panic about that.”
As he works to reopen the state, DeSantis himself has pushed back against restrictions on outdoor activities.
“Some of these other states have done a lot of hamfisted restrictions,” he said. “You know like if you walk in your driveway you’ll get harassed. If you plant a flower, things like that. I think all that’s counterproductive.”
Liz Pfleghardt-Chafik and her husband left Florida on March 25 as campgrounds in the state and nationwide were closing. They’re now at a private campground in Virginia waiting for the coronavirus outbreak to subside and certainty to return. She’s been tracking campground closures for Campendium, a review web site.
“We wanted to go somewhere and stay there,” Pfleghardt-Chafik said. “We also knew if we get booted from campgrounds we increased the risk of carrying [the coronavirus] to other areas. We didn’t want to be those people.”
Dennis Hefner, manager of the Ho Hum RV Park on the Gulf Coast in Franklin County, has allowed campers to stay as long as they maintain social distancing.
He said he supports the sheriff’s intentions, but not his messaging.
“I didn’t like his statement, ‘Do what I say or I’m going to throw you in jail,"” Hefner said. “This is not the time to be a bully. We need help to enforce it respectfully.”
Smith said he’s heard complaints that he’s gone too far.
“Listen we’re not chasing anybody off,” he told POLITICO. “It would be nice if they would voluntarily comply, like 90 percent of the population is doing. Then we could get through this without more spread.”
Deanna Higgins lives on a boat anchored in Boca Ciega Bay when she’s not sailing throughout the world. She said she found her access to shore — and her daily dog walks — restricted when the city of Gulfport closed beaches and its dock.
“I may not be an essential employee, but my dog has essential business she has to do on shore every day,” Higgins said. “She is not doing it in the boat.”
Florida patchwork of coronavirus rules leads to bewilderment — and fear
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