On NC’s isolated Outer Banks, a new COVID-19 Facebook group brings people together
On the isolated Outer Banks, a cashier at Handee Hugo’s posted this plea for help on Facebook: I rang up 206 customers today, and the store is nearly out of hand sanitizer. Can anyone help?
That same day, four people made a promise to swing by. “I got you,” said one. “I have an extra bottle,” said another. “I’ll drop it off tomorrow.”
Later that day, the cashier posted again: “I am not sure who the man was who walked into my work today with a bagful of black gloves because of this post,” she wrote, “but we love them.”
This Outer Banks Facebook group started on March 14, just as the COVID-19 outbreak took a serious grip on the state. In a week’s time, it had grown to nearly 3,000 members and developed into a clearinghouse of information and debate on the barrier islands.
As the state’s residents increasingly shelter themselves at home, social media groups pop up as neighbors’ only link. A new Durham mutual aid page boasts more than 1,500 members; another in Asheville has topped 5,000.
More have flocked to existing Facebook pages, such as Wake Forest, which connects more than 50,000 people. One post offers a link to an online Monday fitness class. Another comes from a resident stricken with cabin fever, who has rearranged her silverware drawer and wants opinions.
Nationally, Facebook has struggled to contain misinformation about the virus from spreading across its platform as new groups pop up, according to NBC News. Its efforts have drawn familiar accusations of censorship as posts are deleted.
The Outer Banks group has run across the same trouble, and it quickly brought in extra hands to monitor the traffic. Still, the page’s creators take partial credit for the islands’ decision last week to close bridges and restrict nonresident visitors.
“We’ve had 47,000 posts attempted,” said Rob “Sharkbait” Jenkins, one of the administrators on the Outer Banks page. “The biggest problem is scammers and trolls. Another problem is people presenting opinion as fact. If you’re not used to social media, it gets very intimidating very quickly.”
“It upset me”
The Outer Banks page started in mid-March when Valerie Crew, a native of Kill Devil Hills, started seeing advertisements for vacation rentals even though the virus was already ramping up.
The idea of out-of-state tourists arriving frightened and angered her, mainly because the Outer Banks has few hospital beds. But on existing Facebook pages, she said, “mass arguments were ensuing” over whether the beach community should close itself off, and supporters of the idea were all getting shot down.
“I saw those ads and it upset me,” said Crew, who found like-minded residents. “We should start our own group where I won’t be censored.”
Within a week, membership of the new page topped 2,000. Debate over nonresident access continues to rage there, especially whether out-of-state landlords should be able to get to their rental homes. But Crew said her group bombarded local leaders with demands to shut down, and last week, Dare County leaders closed the borders to tourists.
“It was going to happen anyway,” Crew said, “but it probably happened three or four days earlier.”
Now Dare County commissioners post their urgings on the COVID-19 Facebook page. On Sunday, Commissioner Steve House made this plea for decorum.
“I am posting this simply to say STAY CALM we will get through this,” he wrote. “We are getting several reports of people being accosted both verbally and physically. Just because citizens assume they are from out of the area. One was the wife of a Coast Guardsmen stationed here. This is unacceptable !!!!!”
“Kinder, gentler”
One big benefit to such pages, its users note, is a central location for the flood of virus-related information: where to buy toilet paper, who has extra wipes, restaurants offering take-out food and offers to check on nonresident property.
But a COVID-19 page suffers from the same slide into hateful speech and bad manners that afflicts any social media outlet. As they issue warnings about social distance and self-quarantine, users are also stressing the need for tamping down the vitriol — especially over “outsiders.”
“I would like to see our group evolve to a kinder, gentler outlet,” Crew said. “I would like to see the rumor mill, angry stuff die down.”
After nine days, 3,000 members and 47,000 posts, the tone is sometimes more light-hearted.
One user posted a warning Sunday showing that coronavirus can live inside a human body for 37 days.
“I get on a bender,” another joked, “and ain’t nothing living in this body till the binge is over.”
“Crown and coke might kill it,” joked another. “Or Scotch!”
This story was originally published March 23, 2020 at 4:38 PM with the headline "On NC’s isolated Outer Banks, a new COVID-19 Facebook group brings people together."