Via the Globe and Mail: Flu-haunted St. George turns into ghost town. Excerpt:
Tonight could be the spookiest Halloween in the 225-year history of St. George, N.B.
The spectre that stalks its tree-lined streets will keep teenagers indoors, set loose a flurry of small-town gossip and prompt the town to close public places.
“Quite frankly, I'm worried about the whole thing,” said Lynn Farmakoulas, principal of Fundy High, the local secondary school. “I can see stores shutting down, restaurants closing.”
She should know. That scourge – the H1N1 virus – prompted officials to close Fundy yesterday after a quarter of its teachers and half its students stayed home with the flu. Four other schools in the area were also closed.
And now, on a weekend usually reserved for exchanges of sugar and fright, much of the region will hunker indoors until the virus passes.
“My son was told not to trick-or-treat by the doctor,” said April Lomax. Her 14-year-old attends Fundy High. “It's shaping up to be a quiet Halloween.”
Like hundreds of others in the 1,300-person town, Ms. Lomax's son came down with the flu early this week. By Thursday, Fundy High was deserted, with 340 of 640 students absent. Also among the missing were 11 of 42 teachers, two of six custodians, four bus drivers and half the teaching assistants.
“If we had been open today, we would have had to double and triple class sizes,” Ms. Farmakoulas said. “It wasn't something we had ever planned for. We discussed what would happen if staff presented as ill, but we never went further and asked what would happen if a quarter of the staff was out.”
