Leaders from Cannon Beach to Astoria invoked emergency powers to ban visitors from campgrounds, hotels and other lodging after tourists overwhelmed the coast for spring break before Gov. Kate Brown issued a new executive order on Monday directing people across Oregon to stay home to help contain the coronavirus.

Brown’s executive order prohibits nonessential social or recreational gatherings of any size unless 6-feet of social distancing is possible.

The order issues broad restrictions on retailers and closes places like arcades, barber shops, hair salons, gyms and fitness studios, skating rinks, theaters and yoga studios. Outdoor recreational facilities, such as skate parks or basketball courts, are also closed. Restaurants offering takeout can stay open.

People violating the order could be cited for a misdemeanor.

The Clatsop County Board of Commissioners voted at a special meeting via teleconference on Sunday afternoon to close campgrounds, hotels, short-term rentals and homestay lodging for two weeks, which went into effect at noon on Monday.

The county’s order contains exceptions for camp hosts, people working in the county, as well as people traveling for work or already registered for longer stays.

Seaside, which declared an emergency on Saturday night, also agreed on Sunday to restrict access to city parks, streams and beach areas and close hotels and other lodging on Monday. Gearhart endorsed the county’s order.

Cannon Beach went a step further, closing hotels on Monday and also excluding daytrip visitors through early April.

“On Friday, we anticipated a strong message from the governor’s office,” Rick Hudson, Cannon Beach’s emergency manager, said during a special meeting of the City Council on Sunday. “But that strong message that we were anticipating so that we could take action and actually have some enforceable items never happened. It was not an order, but only a plan.

“The plan was to stay home and stay safe. And there was also accompanying messages with that to go outside and enjoy nature along with social distancing.”

Clatsop County on Monday reported that a woman tested positive for the coronavirus.

Michael McNickle, the county’s public health director, described the woman as between 35 and 54 years old and said she lives in the northern part of the county.

While the county did not disclose details about the woman’s medical condition, the Public Health Department said she “is doing better and is in quarantine at home.”

The county is working to identify and notify all known contacts with the woman. People who came into contact with her will be placed under monitoring and informed of any requirements for testing, self-isolation or medical care.

On Wednesday, the South County saw its first case. The health department announced the individual is a male between 35 and 55 years of age. He was reported to be convalescing at home under quarantine.

Mike Antrim, a spokesman for Providence Seaside, said the 25-bed hospital is adding 16 beds. Camp Rilea personnel with the Oregon Military Department also worked with state and Providence Seaside maintenance crews in putting up tents outside the hospital.

The tents will be used for testing and triaging people who get sick from COVID-19.

Brown ordered hospitals in Oregon to cease nonemergency procedures to conserve medical supplies last week.

Elective surgeries are medically necessary but can be delayed, according to David Northfield, a spokesman for the Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems. Examples are knee or hip replacements, cataracts or a deviated septum.

Tourists overwhelm coast

Seaside was quiet last Thursday. Jimmy Griffin, the owner of Seaside Brewing Co., stood in his empty restaurant filling to-go orders while juggling other tasks. He said the restaurant and patio would typically be packed on a sunny spring afternoon.

By the weekend, hundreds of visitors strolled Seaside’s Prom and sunned on the city’s beaches.

Seaside resident Martin Trutanich displayed a two-word message: “Go Home.”

“I’m directing this to people who are from outside Clatsop County who are traveling here to have their little spring break, their little Instagram photo opp at the beach,” he said. “In doing so, they’re putting our entire community at risk, a community that they’re not invested in, but we are,” he said.

On social media, reports emerged early on Saturday of heavy traffic from the Portland metro area and other places toward the coast.

Michael Manzulli, an attorney who lives in Tolovana Park, wrote to local state park managers asking them to close Oswald West State Park, Arcadia Beach and Hug Point.

“Both parking lots are full and people are parking along the highway shoulders in either direction,” he wrote about Oswald West. “There are only two small bathroom facilities to accommodate the hundreds of people recreating here this spring break. Advised social distancing is certainly not happening.”

Traffic was thick on U.S. Highway 26, he said, and both Hug Point and Arcadia Beach were also busy.

“This is not spring break as usual, yet folks from Seattle and Oregon’s Willamette Valley are acting like it is,” he wrote. “They are exhausting our limited grocery resources and possibly spreading COVID-19 to our area from more densely populated and infected areas.”

“We’re telling people they need to be responsible,” City Manager Mark Winstanley said at Saturday’s city council meeting. “Whether they come to Seaside or don’t come to Seaside, it’s very important for people to make responsible decisions. It’s not business as usual. This is a very serious and different situation. We think people should pay attention to that situation.”

On Friday morning the city was quiet, Winstanley said. “It just got busier quickly. It was a surprise to see that many people come to town.”

He attributed the surge to reports that advised residents to get outdoors. “People said ‘Let’s go to the beach.’’

Impact on businesses, hotels

Local business people, including John Chapman of KSWB radio, Neil Dundas of Dundee’s and Jason Johnson of Tonquin Trading Co. spoke out in behalf of city action at Saturday’s city council meeting.

“The last thing we want to tell the tourists is we don’t want them,” Chapman said. “But for the most part, the businesses had no idea how many people were going to roll into town today. It took everybody by shock.”

Businesses want to be open and make money, he added. “But right now it’s on a tipping point.”

Jeff Ter Har of Ter Har’s told councilors: “We’ve got to shut down. We cannot submit our employees and customers to this type of thing.”

Neil Dundas of Dundee’s called Saturday “one of those soul-searching days.”

“It’s scary,” Dundas said. “Out of 35, 36, 37 people, that I have, I’m down to eight. I’m trying to give the jobs to those that are hurting, who have kids. A lot of those people are scared too.”

“What I see in this town right now is a gigantic disease vector,” said Jimmy Griffin, owner of Seaside Brewing Co. “Right now there are probably more people right here than anywhere else on the coast, and they’re all partying and right next to each other and groups much bigger than 25 people.”

On Sunday, more businesses shuttered. Pedestrian traffic dwindled from the day before.

“There’s no such thing as ‘normal’ right now, people are staying away,” Michelle Wunderlich of Seaside Coffee House said Sunday.

“Today the tide’s kind of turned,” Shannon Carey, of Dundee’s Donuts, said. “The warning is getting out to people, and there seemed to be a lot of backlash yesterday: ‘Why are they coming here and why aren’t people paying attention?’”

Tsunami Sandwich Co. owner David Posalski sat in his Broadway store, preparing to shut down.

Like other downtown businesses, he had experienced a bit of a surge from visitors on Saturday. “There are a lot of people who don’t realize if they stay home, they’re not going to catch anything,” Posalski said.

“I think a couple of weeks where everyone has a whole lot less interaction may change the curve.”

What will happen to his employees? “They are all without work,” Posalski said.

As for himself? “We’ll continue to pay our bills until we can’t. We’re coming out of the winter, so it’s really the worst time of year for a lot of the businesses here in our town.”

Local hoteliers Masudur Khan and Taslema Sultana, who between them own around six properties in Cannon Beach and Seaside, have been shutting down operations and laying off more than 100 people since the bans on visitors were announced.

Khan said it was tough laying off most of his workforce, but that he understands the necessity.

“We need to protect ourselves and protect our employees,” Khan said.

Khan has offered up the 45-room Coast River Inn in Seaside if the county needs spaces to care for people with coronavirus. The county has a similar agreement with the Rivershore Motel in Astoria, McNickle said.

Many retailers on the North Coast had already closed because of concerns about the virus.

Staci Miethe, manager of the Seaside Outlet Mall, said only two stores affected by the governor’s order were still open as of Monday.

“Nike was the busiest store, and they closed last week, and then everybody followed suit,” Miethe said. “It was a domino effect after that.”

Tokyo Teriyaki is still doing to-go orders from the outlet mall. Columbia Memorial Hospital’s Seaside Urgent Care clinic is also still operating. Health store GNC and salon Perfect Look are being told to close, she said.

The outlet mall had kept bathrooms open over the weekend. They were destroyed by visitors, filled with sand and have since been closed, Miethe said.

The order excluded businesses providing food, groceries, health care, medical, pharmacy or pet store services, provided they use social distancing policies.

Brian Owen of the Seaside Chamber of Commerce said his office is working on a plan which will partner with the Small Business Administration, the state, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

“Our first focus is to communicate effectively and accurately with the heart of the Seaside, small businesses,” Owen said. “At this time, we see more questions than answers, and soon we will be able to answer these current questions confidently.”

Perhaps no one’s job is more difficult than Joshua Heineman, director of tourism marketing for the Seaside Visitors Bureau.

What is his message for the future?

“Seaside will be here,” Heineman said. “Better than ever.”