A Florida-born college student says he’s trapped in Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, which he said has transformed the quarantined Chinese city into a veritable “apocalypse.”
Nicholas SchneiderREUTERSNicholas Schneider, a 21-year-old studying at Wuhan University, said he’s been trying to find a way out of the city, which banned transportation to stop the spread of the virus that has killed 170 people.
“I feel like I’m in an apocalypse somehow,” Schneider, who was born in Coral Springs, Fla., said Wednesday.
Though the city is home to 11 million, nearly half of the population left town before it was put on lockdown, officials said. Others are hunkering down inside their homes to protect themselves against the virus, leaving the streets largely deserted.
“It’s like a ghost town, barely any people and cars. It’s a weird feeling,” Schneider said.
He said he considered jumping on a train before the Jan. 23 lockdown, but his parents worried that he could catch the virus from other travelers.
“They said that the train station was not the place to be at a time like this with the virus,” he said. “So I decided to stay … and that’s when I was scared for the first time because I didn’t know what to do.”
Schneider, who holds dual US-German citizenship, said he contacted the US Embassy for help fleeing the stricken city.
But the embassy official offered him an $1,100 seat on a chartered flight and told him he would have to find a way to get to the airport, which was 30 miles away on the other side of Wuhan.
“I couldn’t believe what I just heard,” Schneider said. “That’s not how you deal with a citizen in need … it seemed like she didn’t care.”
Schneider, who lived most of his life in Germany, spent 10 hours trying to get to the airport to no avail, his aunt told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
He then reached out to German officials, who promised him a seat on a flight Saturday, as well as a bus ride to the airport with other stranded students.
Schneider said he hopes Saturday’s arrangement works out, adding, “I hope I haven’t jinxed myself.”
With Post wires



