Kansas City-area travelers stuck in other countries try to get home. ‘Options are few’
This story was updated 9 a.m. Saturday
Might there be a way out of Guatemala, after all, for the Platte Woods teenagers and adult chaperones stuck there since the country’s president closed its borders Monday due to the spread of the novel coronavirus?
Missouri’s junior U.S. senator, Josh Hawley, announced on Twitter Friday that he has a plan for that. But others with Kansas City ties might not be so lucky and remain stranded in far-off countries with no idea when they’ll get home.
No flights in or out. And U.S. embassies that won’t answer the phone.
“Options are few,” Leawood resident Brian Copeland said by phone from his in-laws’ house in South America. “We’re down here in Peru, me and my family and about 1,600 other Americans who can’t get out.”
Back in the states, Dawn Ready of Lawrence is also frustrated. Her daughter and son-in-law are unable to leave Ecuador, and she can’t believe that neither the government nor the church missionary organization that sponsored the couple’s trip weren’t better prepared for something like this.
She wasn’t shy in sharing her thoughts with former Kansas congressman and now U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
“I even sent him an email,” she said. “Help your Kansas constituents, even though I am not a Republican. Come on, Mike! Help us out.”
The State Department doesn’t have a firm count on just how many Americans are stranded around the globe. Air travel has been cut off to a number of countries that have closed their borders entirely or tightened travel restrictions.
At a White House press conference Friday, Pompeo stressed that his department was working hard to arrange charter flights for tourists, missionaries and business travelers where commercials flights aren’t available.
In some cases, military planes might even ferry Americans home, he said.
“We’re going to work to get people back,” he said. “We’re trying to get Americans back from places where air travel has been disrupted.”
Earlier in the day, Hawley announced on his Twitter account that good luck may be on its way for the 14 teens and five adults from Platte Woods United Methodist Church whose week-long mission trip was to have ended Friday but could now go on indefinitely.
“This morning we spoke with State Dept’s repatriation task force on this issue,” he Tweeted. “We have spoken with a major airline that may be able to help stranded Missourians in Guatemala, but we need State Dept’s approval and coordination.”
The leader of the Platte Woods group, retired physician Marty Kanne, feels confident that something will be worked out soon.
“I went to the embassy today and was told to stay close to our phones, but no guarantees,” he said via email Friday afternoon.
By Saturday morning, he had good news to report. The group is planning on boarding a flight Saturday night back to the United States.
“We are not exactly sure how this came about, but obviously the U.S. State Department had to have something to do with it,” he said, and praised Hawley, Sen. Roy Blunt and the northland’s congressman, Rep . Sam Graves, for their help.
But Copeland, an engineer at WDAF-TV, is without much hope at the moment, despite assurances from Pompeo and President Donald Trump that they are working hard to repatriate Americans who were out of the country when life as we know it changed so dramatically this week.
“It’s depressing when you sit and watch the COVID press conferences,” Copeland said Friday morning. “I’m not getting any joy from the federal government. At no time that we’ve called the embassy here have they picked up the phone to talk to anyone.”
Copeland’s wife, Sylvia, flew down a few weeks ago to visit her ailing father, and Copeland followed on March 8 for a three-week vacation along with his daughter, sister-in-law and mother-in-law.
But a week into the trip, Peru’s president declared a state of emergency, closed the borders and announced a 15-day quarantine that Copeland fears might be extended.
Even if it isn’t prolonged, “several of the airlines are saying they are not flying down here until the beginning of May.”
Two other airlines — Latam and Avianca — are building a list of Americans who want a flight out at prices that some commenting on the Facebook page Americans Stuck in Peru say are overpriced.
“...talk about the abusive price gouging $851 one way to Miami???” one wrote. “This is a joke unacceptable and a slap in the face to many Americans stuck in Peru during this crisis. Not sure if you really want to call it good news. The US state department needs to step up and take care of their people.”
For those willing to pay premium prices for a ticket, when and if there are flights, getting to the airport will be a challenge for anyone not near the airports in Lima and Cusco. The Peruvian government has suspended all travel between provinces.
“They’re trapped,” Copeland said.
Ready’s daughter and son-in-law know the feeling.
The Ecuadorian embassy notified Kelsey Riebel and husband Dustin the other day that there was a slim chance they could get home if they could get to the coastal city of Guayaquil, where a lone charter flight was going to take Americans home.
But the Tulsa, Oklahoma, couple didn’t have much notice and there wouldn’t have been enough time for them to get to the airport from where they were staying some 250 miles away in Quito. More importantly, all domestic travel within Ecuador had been restricted.
“They went over there on a mission trip to help people in Ecuador,” Ready said. “The idea that nobody had a plan for something like this is remarkable.”
In addition to Pompeo, Ready complained to Global Ministries about lacking contingencies for bringing Americans home.
But that criticism is unfair, according to one executive of the Christian group that sent Kelsey Riebel, a physician’s assistant, and her husband to central and South America on a medical mission trip.
“Nobody had any idea of when they would close the border,” the Rev. Angel Rivera-Agosto told The Star by phone from his home in Indianapolis. “There was no actual way to anticipate that.”
Rivera-Agosto said he is in daily contact with the couple and has assured Ready that he is looking after her daughter.
“She has been provided with food, with water, and she’s safe, and our partner in Ecuador is taking good care of her,” he said.
Even if the quarantined couple could get a flight out, he said, that might not be the best thing for them, as they’d be exposed to possible contamination in the airports and plane.
“We’re all in the same situation, her and Dustin in Ecuador, and us back here.”
Isolated at home. Waiting for when the experts say it’s safe to come out and live their lives again.
This story was originally published March 21, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
