Stranded Americans ask why they weren’t warned earlier
NEW DELHI — Ana Pautler, a trekker from San Francisco, was partway up a Himalayan mountain trail in Nepal when she noticed something peculiar: People were turning around.
As fears of the coronavirus spread around the world, German hikers told Pautler March 17 that their embassy had advised them to return to Kathmandu, the capital, and was discussing flying people out. Israeli tourists were doing the same thing, she said, spurred by messages to leave.
But Pautler, 32, who has been living in China, received no such alert from the State Department’s travel advisory system until March 23, though she was signed up for regular updates.
By then, Nepal’s international airspace had already been closed for a day, following similar worldwide shutdowns and her flight out had been canceled.
“Other embassies seemed to be giving more information,” Pautler said by telephone from Kathmandu, where she is waiting out a nationwide lockdown that will last until at least mid-April. “The U.S. Embassy wasn’t really saying anything.”
While the United States struggles with surging cases of the coronavirus and lifeor-death decisions in a fast imploding health care system, citizens stranded thousands of miles away fear that they may be left behind.
A State Department spokesperson wrote in an email that personnel were “working tirelessly to identify transportation options for U.S. citizens seeking to return to the United States.” The State Department did not answer a question about why Americans in Nepal were notified of complications returning home later than other nations.
As coronavirus cases surpassed 1 million worldwide, Americans on three continents said government repatriation efforts had seemed slower and less certain than those of other countries, pointing to embassy social media posts and emails through the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program, which provides travel updates to citizens abroad.
In India, American beachgoers in Goa, where many shops have closed during a 21-day lockdown, said they were rationing food as other countries loaded their citizens onto buses bound for the airport.
In Ghana, Halima Mahdee, 40, a student from California, said she was furious about not having been evacuated weeks ago, when South Korean and Chinese students were sent home from her study abroad program in Accra, the capital.
In Peru, hundreds of Americans are still trapped, and activists warned that a humanitarian crisis was unfolding as tourists reported being forcibly evicted from hotels and unable to find medicine for critical health conditions.
Some tourists pointed out that communication had been far smoother with the embassy once it became clear that the United States was also going into lockdown mode. Parts of Europe were initially reporting higher cases of the coronavirus than the United States, a possible reason for why they urged citizens to leave Nepal days earlier.
Embassies have faced daunting logistics coordinating with local government officials who are focused on protecting their own citizens. Even reaching tourists in countries like Nepal has been complicated: Some popular trails are accessible only by chartering planes that hold a dozen people.
It was not until March 26 that the State Department issued its first notice about a possible evacuation flight. Five days later, 302 Americans left Nepal.
But as Americans have watched medical personnel load bodies onto refrigerated trucks and the United States reports more cases than anywhere else in the world, some are having second thoughts about trying to leave on another evacuation flight.
Amy Sellmyer, 34, from Oklahoma, and who has built a life in Nepal, felt better staying put.
“I’m not planning to go,” she said.