Northwest Iowa — Iowans who are so-called snowbirds, spending the winter months in the southern United States, are having to make tough decisions about how to protect themselves from the coronavirus.
This is the time, in a normal year, when northwest Iowa snowbirds would begin returning home for the summer months. However, with the COVID-19 pandemic, some are returning, while others are opting to remain in their winter locales until the pandemic passes.
KIWA talked to a Spirit Lake couple who returned earlier this week from their winter home in Texas. They said they made the trip north in their motorhome, stopping only for fuel, and parking overnight in the parking lots of big box stores along the way, and took the precaution of wearing masks whenever they stepped outside their motorhome. Now that they’re back in northwest Iowa they have quarantined themselves in their lakeside home, and do not intend to emerge for a two-week period.
For snowbirds returning to Sheldon, City Manager Sam Kooiker has a couple of requests. First, if you had your water meter removed before you left this past fall, Kooiker asks that you please call the City Office at 712-324-4651 BEFORE you come home. He says city employees are limiting their entry into homes during the COVID-19 outbreak. And second, Kooiker STRONGLY urges you to self-isolate for 14 days once you return home, to keep from infecting others should you bring the virus home with you.
