TYLER, Texas — Part of the effort to stop the spread of coronavirus in Texas includes strict measures for some people who are traveling from out of state.
Roxanne Clow, who returned to East Texas last week from the state of Washington, is currently under state-mandated quarantine.
“I really didn’t want to come home,” Clow joked Thursday. “I was with my grandbabies. But my husband wanted me to come home!”
Clow flew back from Seattle to Tyler last Friday. She described an eerie scene at the normally-bustling Sea-Tac Airport, and said there may have been 20 passengers on a flight that usually holds close to 200.
Clow felt the impact of recent travel restrictions as soon as she entered the airport.
“When I checked in at the American Airlines check-in there at Seattle, they had the affidavit,” Clow recalled. “And I went ahead and filled it out standing there, because there was, they weren’t busy. No one was there. So, I had it ready to go.
“And then, when I came off of the airplane in DFW—and this was a flight from Washington—there were officers with the Texas Department of Public Safety there. And, immediately, as soon as you came off, there was an officer saying, ‘If Texas is your final destination, go to this line,’ which, there really is no line because there’s very few people coming off the airplane. ‘And if you’re going to other destinations, go over here.’”
She said the troopers were friendly and only asked a couple questions to corroborate the information she wrote in her affidavit.
Washington is one of the places listed in Gov. Greg Abbott’s amended executive order related to travel. Anyone driving into Texas from Louisiana or flying from one of several hard-hit areas have to self-quarantine for 14 days after they arrive or the duration of their stay, whichever is shorter.
“Flying in from certain areas of the country that the COVID-19 has been much more of an issue, I think it’s totally appropriate,” Clow said. “And I would’ve done it on my own anyway.”
Clow joked that self-quarantining in Texas is easier than remaining shut-in in Washington because the weather here in nicer, so she has a better view out her windows. She acknowledged that it feels more restrictive being forced to quarantine, rather than choosing to self-isolate but retaining the freedom to go to the grocery store or the park.
Monday, less than three days after Clow returned home, she got a call from a Houston number she did not recognize.
“I didn’t answer my phone,” Clow said. “And then I turned on my voicemail and there’s this young man on there that, ‘I’m out in front of your house and I’m with the Department of Public Safety, and I need for you to come out on our front porch and waive to me.’ So, I did!”
She has to remain in her house for these two weeks to prove she is symptom-free and assumes troopers will keep checking on her to make sure she obeys. She says she will.
“You know, so far, we have been very fortunate in Texas,” Clow explained. “We’ve been blessed. And hopefully, we will bypass some of the problems that some of—New York, California, Washington state—have had.”
Any traveler who violates the 14-day quarantine order could get a $1,000 fine or spend 180 days in jail.
Clow mentioned that passengers arrived into DFW International Airport are given the option of following the quarantine order or finding another flight to take them to a final destination in a different state.