College closures leave students scrambling to get home 

TAMPA, Fla. - Open space and face masks are two very noticeable things at the airport right now. 

“We’re not messing around,” explained Thelma Ortega. “People are still trying to figure out what to do because they have until Wednesday. People are waiting, some are driving  and some are going 20 hours to get back home”

Ortega and SarahLee Tovar are headed back home to DC after classes were suspended at Eckerd College and they were forced to evacuate campus.

The seniors are just hoping graduation is still on. But this week’s travel restrictions have already thrown a wrench in some of those plans 

“A lot of my family members have bought their flights already for graduation,” Ortega said. “I have like 10 family members who were going to make a whole trip out of it. Go to universal, Go to Disney it’s a lot of cancellations and a lot of things to rethink. I have family from out of this country too so now their flights are changed” 

At midnight Friday, a sweeping ban on travel from Europe went into effect. For the next 30 days, foreign passengers will be barred from flying from most of continental Europe to the United States.

American passengers are not impacted by the restrictions and can still travel freely, but many are canceling anyway 

“I had planned to come home today actually with a bunch of my friends but they all had to cancel their flights,” explained traveler Evan Langford.  

It’s a stressful time for many travelers who are having to decide between risk and irreplaceable memories 

On top of that, many are having to make a choice between staying put or potentially losing hundreds or thousands of dollars spent on vacations that have already been booked.

Many companies are trying to offer peace of mind.  From Airbnb to Delta Airlines to Norwegian Cruise Lines, travel companies are updating their cancellation policies almost daily and offering refunds, credits, or waiving change fees. 

But not every company is making things easy and several more are offering deep discounts on travel, hoping to lure more travels at this time.

“I think people who are like, ‘oh the prices are going down I’m going to take a trip’ and I think that’s inconsiderate and I don’t think they’re taking precautions,” said Tovar. “Because people who are more prone to get infected with coronavirus they’re not thinking about them”