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Isolated for Months, Island Crew Sees Pandemic for First Time

Associated Press

   HONOLULU - Just as the coronavirus pandemic began to take hold, in
   February, four people set sail for one of the most remote places on
   Earth -- a small camp on Kure Atoll, at the edge of the uninhabited
   Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

   There, more than 1,400 miles from Honolulu, they lived in isolation for
   eight months while working to restore the island's environment. Cut off
   from the rest of the planet, their world was limited to a tiny patch of
   sand halfway between the U.S. mainland and Asia. With no television or
   internet access, their only information came from satellite text
   messages and occasional emails.

   Now they are back, emerging into a changed society that might feel as
   foreign today as island isolation did in March. They must adjust to
   wearing face masks, staying indoors and seeing friends without giving
   hugs or hearty handshakes.

   "I've never seen anything like this, but I started reading the book The
   Stand by Stephen King, which is about a disease outbreak, and I was
   thinking, 'Oh my goodness, is this what it's going to be like to go
   home?'" said Charlie Thomas, one of the four island workers.

   The group was part of an effort by the state of Hawaii to maintain the
   fragile island ecosystem on Kure, which is part of the
   Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, the nation's largest
   contiguous protected environment. The public is not allowed to land
   anywhere in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

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