PAUL WISEMAN and JIM VERTUNO Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — It took 15 minutes for the coronavirus to wreck Shelley Hutchings' carefully calculated financial plans. Hutchings, a bartender and performer, had lined up gigs in advance of the South by Southwest film, music and technology festival, which draws hundreds of thousands of visitors to Austin each year. She'd expected to earn about $3,000 — enough to pay her taxes and buy a new sewing machine for a tailoring business she runs. Relaxed, she sat down to watch a movie. Then her phone started vibrating. Cancellations rolled in. One by one, the jobs she's been counting on were gone. In the face of the spreading coronavirus outbreak, Austin officials had called off the festival just as the first attendees had begun to arriv
Subscribe or log in to read the rest of this content.