FORT WORTH — School shutdowns linked to the swine flu outbreak have created issues with planned sporting events, academic testing, and make-up days there
are even problems with early voting polling sites. Flights coming in from Mexico are packed, but there are reports that planes taking off for destinations south of the border are nearly empty. Many American Airlines flight attendants have called in sick, apparently out of concern about getting swine flu. There are still a lot of unknowns with this illness, which is why most communities are using extreme caution. But that’s not true in every North Texas city. In Burleson, the party’s still on, with a weekend Cinco de Mayo festival continuing as planned on Friday and Saturday. In Arlington, parents are still encouraged to bring their kids to the Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, and the Six Flags Over Texas theme park remains open for business.
Arlington Mayor Robert Cluck — who is a medical doctor — pointed out that while Tarrant County has a population of 1.7 million people, there are fewer than two dozen probable and confirmed cases of swine flu. “There have been no deaths in Tarrant County associated with H1N1,” he said, using the technical term for the illness.