COVID-19 grab bag

Signs near the Recovery Center
Photo by Gidget Terpstra

By Diane Hettrick

These are stories that deserve more attention and may be covered later, but for now:

People are yelling out their windows and doors to show their support for health care workers. Different towns and areas around the world are telling everyone to go outside at a particular time, say 8pm and make a lot of noise. It scares the dogs and terrifies people who didn't get the message, but hey - it makes some people feel better.

Teddy Bear Hunt - people are putting teddy bears in their windows so families out for walks can play Spot the Bear.

Watch Rachel Maddow's show on MSNBC. Shoreline has been featured three times this week because of our Recovery Center. Rachel is very focused on the way Washington state and King county have been handling the pandemic. She has interviewed Jay Inslee, Dow Constantine, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan and even did a close up of the signs that someone put on the fence. (above)

Our pretty green soccer fields look very good from the air.

Also from Rachel Maddow: she interviewed the head of the Army Corps of Engineers. This is the unit that can swoop in and build an entire city in 24 hours. Ok I exaggerate, but they are used to giant construction projects. They are working in New York City right now, turning Javits Field into a hospital. She asked him what it would take to get the Corps into other states and he gave a long answer about needing to be invited, needing an existing structure to convert, involving FEMA, etc.

She was winding down the interview when he casually said, "Our next project is in Seattle. We're going to build in the Seahawks Stadium, around the perimeter under the overhang." That surprised Rachel and the local politicians, who weren't quite ready to announce yet. And it's Centurylink field these days.

I think they will be using our Recovery Center pretty soon. I have information about a weekly online information session about the site. The first question will probably be about the porta potties.

There's a company in Bothell that will be working with GM to build ventilators. Also, the governor is trying to source ventilators from China.

Shoreline Community College scoured the campus to find personal protection equipment that they could donate to hospitals.

The Governor told the school districts in Washington that they need to have online learning in place by March 30. A reader saw people at Parkwood and at the district headquarters under canopies handing out computers to kids.

More to come...