Earlier this month, AL.com’s Chris Harress reported from the sands of Orange Beach as beachgoers appeared to dismiss warnings of potential coronavirus infection.

One beachgoer proudly proclaimed, "The only corona here is the one I’m drinking.”

Since that time, the state’s beaches have been closed due to the threat of COVID-19.

To give us an idea of the ramifications of beachgoers ignoring warnings, a tech company crunched some numbers to show just how quickly a virus can spread across the country from a single beach.

Tectonix, using data from cell phone signals, released a video showing the spread from a Fort Lauderdale beach. Granted, it is Florida, not Alabama, but the point is clear.

“We wanted to see the true footprint of social gathering like spring break beach crowds really have on our society in the face of a global pandemic,” the company states in the video.

Tectonix took cell information during the first two weeks of March from the specific beach, then tracked those unique mobile devices over the rest of the month of March.

In the video below, you can see the mobile devices spread from Florida to the midwest and the East Coast.

“It becomes clear just how massive the potential impact one single beach gathering can have in spreading the virus across the nation,” the company’s said in the presentation. “The data tells the stories we just can’t see.”

Want to see the true potential impact of ignoring social distancing? Through a partnership with @xmodesocial, we analyzed secondary locations of anonymized mobile devices that were active at a single Ft. Lauderdale beach during spring break. This is where they went across the US: pic.twitter.com/3A3ePn9Vin — Tectonix GEO (@TectonixGEO) March 25, 2020

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Mark Heim is a sports reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim.