No way to control crowded pool parties at Lake of the Ozarks, local mayor says
Hours after videos of crowded pool parties at the Lake of the Ozarks sparked outrage across the country, the mayor of one lakeside city said he was concerned, even if there was little he could do about it.
Videos circulating on social media showed why he might be worried: Hundreds of people flouted social distancing guidelines in the region’s pools and bars throughout the Memorial Day weekend, something public health officials feared. It ignited worry that the gatherings would cause new coronavirus outbreaks.
John Olivarri, mayor of Osage Beach, a town of about 4,000 people nestled on the eastern edge of Lake of the Ozarks, said he did not think it could be prevented or stopped.
“My concern is for our workers and whether some of the folks that have come down might be creating a health problem for the community, absolutely,” Olivarri said Sunday. “But the only other thing that you could do would be shut it down. I don’t know how you would shut down Lake of the Ozarks. There’s no way to control that.”
The videos depicted party-goers in close quarters, drinking beer and socializing in and out of pools, despite signage around them requesting they remain six feet apart. Partying as shown in the videos occurred at perhaps a dozen locations, Olivarri said.
Before the Memorial Day weekend, public health experts in Missouri and Kansas cautioned the public against spreading the virus. Dr. Lee Norman, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said he had not worried so much about a weekend since Easter.
He wasn’t alone: Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House Coronavirus Task Force coordinator, told FOX News she was “very concerned” about people venturing out without maintaining social distancing.
“We now have excellent scientific evidence of how far droplets go when we speak or just simply talking to one another, and we know that it’s important for people socially interact,” Birx said. “But we also know that it’s important that we have to have masks on if we’re less than six feet, and we have to maintain that six-feet distance.”
The Camden County Health Department put a recommended guidance for restaurants and bars in place from May 4 through May 31. It includes that tables, seats and people should be six feet apart, whether waiting in line, at the pool or on the docks.
Masks are recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but not required, county officials added.
If local authorities tried to respond to every concerned call about social distancing, Olivarri said, they wouldn’t have the manpower to do so.
“The businesses have some responsibility, but I’ll be real honest with you, no one thought that it was going to be easy trying to enforce some of the governor’s guidelines,” Olivarri said. “It gets down to the tolerance level and the expectation and if you know that you don’t want to be out there and be part of it, the best thing is to stay home.”
Former U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri called one of the videos about the parties embarrassing for the state.
“Hope none of them have parents fighting cancer, grandparents with diabetes, aunts and uncles with serious heart conditions,” McCaskill said in a Twitter post. “Because clearly they could care less.”
As an example of the contagion possible from gatherings, officials in the Kansas City region have pointed to Lake Perry in northeast Kansas, where one or more recent group events have been linked to the infections of at least 10 people from multiple counties and two states. At least two other people were then infected when they came in contact with those who gathered at the lake.
Backwater Jacks Bar & Grill, one of the businesses featured in the videos, is one of at least a dozen large entertainment venues around Lake of the Ozarks hosting large crowds, Olivarri said. Backwater Jacks Bar & Grill advertised a “Zero Ducks Given Pool Party” for Saturday followed by more festivities stretching into Monday.
A post on Facebook described the extra safety precautions, including reduced capacity, non-contact thermal temperature screening and personal bottles of hand sanitizer.
The owner of Backwater Jacks did not respond to request for comment Sunday.
Becky Unger, who works at Golden Horseshoe Condo Rentals, said she was too busy cleaning Sunday to speak. When she spoke with The Star a few days earlier, ahead of the Memorial Day crowd, Unger said reservations had been pouring in.
“I think it’s going to be a busy weekend,” Unger said. “I hope that when people come they will be cautious and they will social distance. We don’t want an outbreak in our area.”
Reactions to the videos poured in from people across the country, including Meghan McCain, co-host of ABC’s “The View” and daughter of the late U.S. Sen. John McCain.
“I don’t even know what to say anymore....” she wrote on Twitter.
Some commentators online suggested those at the lake could learn a lesson from a recent incident in Arkansas. There, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Saturday he had received texts about infections that stemmed from a high school swimming party.
“That I’m sure everybody thought was harmless,” Hutchinson said at a news conference, calling on people to be disciplined during the holiday. “They’re young. They’re swimming. They’re just having activity. And positive cases resulted from that.”
A recent study by researchers at Imperial College London, said Missouri is among 24 states that don’t yet have the risk of the virus spreading under control, the Washington Post reported.
Outrage about the Lake of the Ozarks videos continued Sunday, the same day The New York Times dedicated its entire front page to the names of some of the nearly 100,000 Americans who have died from COVID-19 — the most in any country, according to data maintained by Johns Hopkins University.
Danny Zuker, best known as an executive producer of ABC’s show “Modern Family,” tweeted of one of the videos: “Man some people will do anything to get on the front page of the New York Times.”
People from across U.S.
Capt. Chris Twitchell, of the Camden County Sheriff’s Office, said deputies have responded to a record number of calls because of the large number of people in the region.
The population in the area swelled about two months ago because people began vacationing early, he said.
Calls to the sheriff’s office have not generally been about social distancing guidelines — something its deputies “really don’t have any teeth” to do anything about — but for other things, such as domestic incidents.
The best thing the sheriff’s office can do for complaints about COVID-19 is to refer calls to the local health department so it can talk to a business about responsibility.
Twitchell has worked in the region for 25 years, but this weekend was “crazy,” he said. He has seen license plates on cars from other parts of Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Arkansas, Illinois, Colorado and New York.
“We’ve got people who are from all over the United States down here right now,” he said, calling on people to use due diligence while they are out. “We got hotels that are just literally sold out.”
He added: “We’re kind of banking on the public’s goodwill to be responsible.”
Not many people appeared to be wearing masks in the pool videos taken at Lake of the Ozarks this weekend.
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Answering a question Tuesday, Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control at the University of Kansas Health System, advised anyone planning to participate in water aerobics to stay eight to 10 feet from others.
“I’m not worried about the virus falling into the pool,” Hawkinson said during a news briefing. “But certainly if someone is coughing, and you are in an enclosed space, even if you’re six or 10 feet away … that does pose a little bit greater risk.”
If someone is wearing a mask in such an environment, it is “probably going to be wet and rendered useless anyway,” Hawkinson said.
As of Sunday, nearly 12,000 Missourians had been infected with the virus. More than 680 had died.
In the four counties the Lake of the Ozarks extends across — Benton, Camden, Morgan and Miller — a combined 60 people have tested positive for the virus. One person has died.
Lake of the Ozarks can see as many as 200,000 people on big weekends, Olivarri said, noting tourist crowd sizes have been a bit smaller during the coronavirus pandemic, but not much.
Sunny skies the last weekend in April drew a sizable crowd to the lake and many of its entertainment venues, Olivarri said. Though not as large as the crowd over Memorial Day weekend, he at the time considered it “a good barometer” to help gauge how to handle the approaching holiday weekend.
“We were very, very fortunate there was little impact at all,” he said, noting that no new cases were reported since the late April crowd appeared.
He believes they’ll be lucky again.
“And I certainly hope I’m right,” he said.
The Star’s Cortlynn Stark contributed.
This story was originally published May 24, 2020 at 5:43 PM with the headline "No way to control crowded pool parties at Lake of the Ozarks, local mayor says."
