BLUFF, Utah – They may be back in their own homes, but some Bluff residents weren’t happy Saturday about being in a town empty of tourists.

Fear wasn’t driving their anger. It’s that no one but the people who live here could get through roadblocks outside town.

Some business owners said the ongoing manhunt for two suspected cop-killers could devastate the town’s already struggling economy.

Residents, who were allowed back into town Friday night after being evacuated Thursday, were considering Saturday whether to ask the state of Utah for disaster aid.

The desert community of 300 relies heavily on tourists staying in its inns, eating at its restaurants and buying its wares. The search prompted authorities to cut off access to town for 2½ days.

The road is scheduled to be reopened to everyone today.

A few residents Saturday likened the damage from the closure and media attention to the hantavirus outbreak in the Southwest in 1993. The virus, carried by rodents, kept many tourists away. Residents said Saturday that Bluff has taken five years to recover from the hantavirus scare.

John LaBounty, whose wife owns The Rock Speaks Gallery, said he is afraid the tourist season has been killed.

Vaughn Hadenfeldt, owner of Far Out Expeditions, an archaeological dig company, said he didn’t want to sound bitter, but couldn’t help thinking about the impact the manhunt is having on the local economy. He also doesn’t like the negative overcast the manhunt brings to Bluff.

The town’s usually peaceful atmosphere has been disrupted as hundreds of law enforcement searchers report to a command center at the Bluff school while the search goes on. Residents were busy helping out where needed washing dishes or cooking food.

Hadenfeldt said he flipped about 200 hamburgers Friday night. But he and others were tired of giving.

"We all feel like we’ve been on the job and now we are all burned out," he said.

Residents said they desperately want life to get back to normal in their out-of-the-way abode. Fran Nelson, a local who was hanging out at the Cottonwood Steakhouse, said she was living in fear. She pulled out a gun and set it on the table.

"I don’t normally pack a rod. I work in a pottery factory," she said.