What coronavirus? Residents, visitors crowd Coast beaches over Memorial Day weekend
The view driving along U.S. 90 last summer looked very different than the beaches and parking bays over Memorial Day weekend.
Parking along the beach from downtown Gulfport to the Biloxi Lighthouse was sparse as families, residents and tourists crossed the highway to get to the beach during the new coronavirus pandemic.
Beaches were recently reopened by Gov. Tate Reeves as he eased restrictions across the state. New COVID-19 cases on the Mississippi Gulf Coast started to tick back up just before the weekend, with the seven-day average back above 7 for the first time in over a week.
Harrison County has seen new cases daily for the past week.
Despite COVID-19, however, beaches this year have some of the largest crowds seen in the last decade in South Mississippi.
From Bay St. Louis to Biloxi, crowds of people gathered in the sand, almost all without masks or other forms of PPE. Signs were posted along the beach to practice social distancing while enjoying the views and the water.
Last year, the opening of Bonnet Carre Spillway along with an algae bloom closed beaches for much of the summer. When they reopened, residents told the Sun Herald they would be cautious about going back and getting in the water.
On Saturday, hundreds of people went to taste and eat over 1,600 pounds of crawfish cooked by 18 teams at Ocean Springs Crawfish Cook-Out.
Event organizer Trevor Reid said he worked with the city to ensure the event would still happen properly because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s a breath of fresh air,” said Kevin Myrick, who was part of the Tail Pinchers team in the competition. “It’s so nice to see people out and about and try to get back to a little bit of normalcy.”
With a Michelob Ultra in hand, one participant handing out his team’s crawfish told a man in line waiting for a taste, “This is all COVID-free.”
South Mississippi is nearing 900 coronavirus cases and 60 deaths.
This story was originally published May 24, 2020 at 2:42 PM.
