Photos/Elaine Van Develde
The sun before the storm. It has a way of lessening the messy, blistering blow of inclement weather and times.
That’s how it seems when looking toward the light and feeling the warmth on a crisp, pre-snow day at then end of Sandy Hook. A desolate, yet sunny, end. The scene’s pure serenity takes the chill away when you can see the light and all the good it enhances.
That light, to many, was the first inoculation on Tuesday of University Hospital of Newark Emergency Department nurse Maritza Beniquez with the Pfizer COVID vaccine. She “has risked her life on the front lines of our fight against COVID-19,” NJ Gov. Phil Murphy said on Twitter. “This morning, she became the first person in New Jersey to get vaccinated. Thank you, Maritza.”
With that light came the dark, surging COVID stats in the state and locally. The state, as of Wednesday morning, had 415,075 cumulative reported cases with 5,803 new positive cases and 91 new confirmed deaths. There is a total of 16,095 deaths and 1,908 probable.
In Monmouth County alone, cases spiked from Tuesday to Wednesday by hundreds, from 277 to 484 and seven new deaths. There has been a total of 860 confirmed deaths in the county with 96 probable.
Locally, here are the tallies: Fair Haven, 165, up 6 from Monday; Rumson, 227, up 7 from Monday; Sea Bright, 61, up 2 from Monday; Red Bank, 889, up 22 from Monday; Little Silver, 181, up 3 from Monday; and Middletown, the largest municipality in Monmouth County, 2,387, up 50 from Monday.
Governor’s quote of the week, from Twitter on Wednesday:
This pandemic is far from over.
Practice social distancing. Mask up.
That in mind and seeing a spike in cases, schools in the Rumson-Fair Haven area remain closed to in-person instruction.
Fair Haven School District sent the following social media message out:
“In accordance with our District response protocols to the presence of a positive case of COVID-19 in our schools, the 8th grade has been moved to full virtual instruction for Tuesday, December 15th through Wednesday, December 23rd. Thank you for your support and stay safe Fair Haven!”
Schools and snow days …
NJ Gov. Phil Murphy has declared a state of emergency starting at 2 p.m. in light of the impending snow storm, considering the heavier snow forecast for northern NJ.
While schools are closed to in-person instruction, there’s been a debate throughout the state about snow days and whether or not they’re necessary with virtual in-home learning.
Some parents have taken to social media to lobby to keep the snow days, claiming that the kids need a respite from pandemic pandemonium with a free day to play in the snow and forget about it all.
The retro aspect: Remember when there was no social media, no computers and only those rotary dial phones? If you can’t remember back that far, let us do it for you.
There was a time when the only way to find out if there was a snow day was to wait to hear the early morning fire horn signal. Yes, that thing that sits on top of the firehouse in Fair Haven sends out signals, sort of like a morse code. There was a special signal that blasted throughout town for all to hear, shouting that there was a snow day.
Anyone remember what the signal was? Three toots, then two and one? Hmmmm …
If there was a snow day, all the kids went running into the neighborhood streets to cheer, suit up and snowball fight, sleigh or build a snowman.
With that, we wonder if there will actually be snow or just a mixed up mess of slush.
The National Weather Service says something snowy is coming. Take a look … (Click to enlarge.)
Officials in the area ask that people obey edicts to keep cars off the road to make way for plows and sanders.
Sea Bright officials are alerting residents to take proper, usual precautions for predicted coastal flooding.
Stay warm. Stay safe. Mask up and look for the sun. See you around the towns!
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