Nine months into the coronavirus pandemic, Carlsbad residents are divided, defiant and in search of a silver lining
by Adrian Hedden and Ed Williams, Carlsbad Current-Argus and Searchlight NM
Nov. 30, 2020
CARLSBAD, N.M. — On an unseasonably hot afternoon in early November, Amber and David Templeton, who worked as crane and rigging operators, were packing their trailer to leave Carlsbad for good. Weeks earlier, their teenage son had gotten sick with COVID-19 and was too sick to travel, but he’d now recovered enough to hit the road back to Houston, their hometown.
They hoped to get a new gig once they arrived, but they weren’t optimistic: The Texas oil and gas industry had taken a huge hit during the pandemic, shedding nearly 40,000 jobs in the first half of the year — which meant the prospects there could be grim. But the prospects in New Mexico were even grimmer.
Read more at the Carlsbad Current-Argus