'What the community is all about': Anxiety is met with determination as southern Manitoba confronts COVID-19

In townsalong Manitoba Highway 75, the major artery running from Winnipegto the U.S. border, it is easy to see how the COVID-19crisis is biting into normal life.

The doors of many businesses display hand-drawn "closed"signs andtraffic, even for smaller communities, seems light.

One thing the health crisis hasn't slowed is the grocery business. In fact, the effect has been the opposite.

Pat Schmidtke remembers theweek starting withFriday the 13thof March as "wild."

At his Bigway Foods store at the south end of Morris a town about 60 kilometres south of Winnipeg that the highway runs through toilet paper rolled off the shelves. Sugar, milk and other staples were jammed into carts and taken home.

The health emergency and growing social distancing requirements loomedover customers who worried they wouldn't have enough supplies.

Schmidtke said hisstaffwantedto help people, but were concernedthey mightcatch the coronavirus doing it.

Worried that some would get even more anxious as their cupboards ran bare,he put out a message onFacebook to let people know Bigway will make home deliveries.

He wasn't prepared for the response.

"It took off. It scared the crap out of me. Biggest Facebook post I ever had," he said.

The next morning he had a dozen volunteers offering to help.

"'Here's my number, here's my name.If you need help delivering groceries, you phone me,'" they told him.

"That tells you what the community is all about."

The level of anxiety, though, is unlike anything Schmidtke has ever seen.

Essential services

Atthe other end of Morris, another business owner has grappledwithtension overprescription drugs.

Unlike the grocery store, pharmacist Nathan Friesensays hisSuper Thrifty Drugs location isn't gettingmassive foottraffic. In fact, it's dropped in his drug store. Deliveries, however, are up.

Friesen has to be mindfulnot only of preventing the spread of the virus in the community, but protecting himself and his staff.

They have become undeclared essential service workers.

"If we go down sick, that's a big problem," said Friesen, who has implementedsocial distancing measures inside his store.

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The pharmacist is also carefully monitoring his stock of drugs. Hesays there aresome restrictions on the amount he can order, and he has to watch out for anxious patients trying to buy up more medicine than they need.

"We are trying to prevent hoarding of medications,like you've seen with the toilet paper and the alcohol and those kind of products. People went kind of nuts."

Friesensays some supply chain management is in effect throughout the pharmacy business, but he's confident he can manage his client's needs.

Like most people, he acknowledges that life has changedin the face of the pandemic, but he's confident residents around Morris will continue to rise to the occasion and look after each other.

WATCH | Shutdowns caused by COVID-19 hit towns across the Red River Valley:

Southern Manitoba confronts COVID-19

4 years ago

Duration 4:01

Residents, municipal leaders and businesses in communities along Highway 75 are concerned about COVID-19, but coping.

Border boarded up

Meanwhile, about 40 kilometres down the highway, there isn't a single vehicle at any of the passenger vehicle checkpoint lanes at the U.S.-Canada border at Emerson.

Not one. For a half an hour in the middle of a Tuesday afternoon.

The transport trucks continue to queue in their own line, but there are no people coming back from shopping trips toGrand Forks, N.D., orhockey teams returning from tournaments. There's noteven asign of any returning snowbirds, anxious to come home.

On March 21, a temporary 30-day restrictionbegan on all non-essential travel into Canada.

For those Manitobans coming home from their winter breaks, an electronicsignon the northern side of the borderblinks a message "ALL SELF ISOLATE 14 DAYS."

The trickle of traffic at the border is having an effect on the communities around the port of entry.

"There are people whoselivelihood depends on cross-border trade here," saidDave Carlson,the reeve of the rural municipality of Emerson-Franklin.

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The reaction to the health crisis is the same acrosshis municipality,from Dominion City to Emerson, he says.

"I think the first thing people say to you [is] 'can you believe what's going on? This is crazy!'" Carlson said, standingin front of the fire hall in Dominion City, a tiny community about 15 kilometres north of Emerson.

There may bevarying degrees of anxiety, but Carlson can tick off a number of ways the region is responding thatreassurehim residents are facing the emergency the right way.

Nearly 20 volunteers have started a phone bank to reach out to seniors who are isolatedby social distancing measures.

"Not only to give that piece of mind, but to see if they need anything if they need any kind of help," Carlson said.

'Science guy' mayor gives Altona a lesson

Altona Mayor Al Friesen's broadcasting background peeks out from his social messages, as the community of over 4,000 copes with COVID-19.

In one Facebook post,Friesen outfitted in safety glasses and rubber glovestakes a page from Bill Nye the Science Guyto gently chide his residents about throwing sanitary wipes down the toilet.

The half serious, half humorouspost showsFriesenswirling wipes around in a glass jar filled with water, to demonstrate that they will not disintegrate liketoilet paper.

"Wipes clog pipes!" Friesen tells his audience.

Light-heartedbut important community reminders aside,Friesen like other municipal leadersisfeeling the anxiety and concern of residents about COVID-19.

"Is it coming here? When will it come here? How serious will it be?" are the questions he hears, he said.

The Altona mayor talked with CBC News in the town park, in front ofpolice tape freshlywrappedaround a play structure.

No crime has been committed it's there to keep kids off the equipment, and isjust another precaution during the health emergency.

The crisis is biting intobusiness all around town, and Friesen is on the phone a lot.

"Those are tough times, and we need to make sure that we're with them. And I think in a small community, when you know the person who runs the business, that makes that connection more real."

Altonais normally a bustling community, with big businesses such as the book printer Friesensand a Bungecanola processing plant right in the town.

Between the two businesses,700 jobs are on the line if the social distancing measures get more acute or the economy shuts down even further.

Mayor Friesen, like so many of his fellow political leaders and residents, has confidence his community will weather this crisis. What will beneeded in the aftermathis resolute support for the local businesses that have been hit hardest, he says.

"This is an opportunity to,when not if,but whenthings turn around and get back on track support those businesses that were there, and will be there in the future."