City mayors, town supervisors and other government officials from across Niagara County got their first look Friday at what emergency services, first responders and law enforcement are planning for what is expected to be an unprecedented crush of visitors looking to view a total solar eclipse here for the first time in almost 100 years.
“We’re talking about hundreds of thousands of people or more, coming to our county,” Niagara County Emergency Management Director Jonathan Schultz said.
And while Schultz called the expected influx of people, “a good thing,” some local government officials weren’t completely convinced.
Lockport Mayor John Lombardi III expressed concern that residents of his city and out-of-towners are being told the best place to view the eclipse is on the plaza in front of his city hall. But Lombardi told Schultz he was worried that a large crowd of people might have an adverse effect on the city’s “big bridge.”
The bridge, located directly in front of Lockport City Hall, carries Main Street vehicle and pedestrian traffic over a portion of the Erie Canal. But the state Department of Transportation has raised concerns about the bridge’s load-bearing capacity.
A portion of the bridge is currently blocked off by cement barriers and orange construction barrels and Lockport City Engineer Steven Pump said the DOT is reviewing and evaluating the structure for additional load grading.
Lombardi wondered if the rest of the bridge would be “structurally sound” or should be closed for the eclipse event. Schultz said city and county officials needed to immediately reach out to the state to find out what they would recommend.
“The planning for the eclipse event) is coming together,” Schultz said after the briefing. “The more meetings we have the better prepared we’ll be. Meetings with the electeds, we want them to know what’s happening.”
Emergency management officials displayed a map showing what they called pre-planned “sanctioned eclipse events,” but they warned that unsanctioned gatherings could present the greatest challenges to communities. Schultz said many of the visitors coming to the county are so-called “eclipse chasers,” who regularly travel and search for the best viewing areas of the moon’s movement over the sun.
“It’s hard to know what they’re going to do. Their plans change, sometimes by the minute,” Schultz said. “They go wherever they think they can get the best view.”
Sometimes, Schultz said, that includes wandering onto private property.
The EMS director said he has met with his counterparts from communities in the United States that were in the path of totality during the last visible total eclipse in 2017. He said they reported “traffic jams three to four times longer than normal” and fuel shortages in small communities without a lot of gas stations.
Tourism officials have begun monitoring reports of a growing number of tour buses planning to be in the county leading up to and during the eclipse. Because the event is expected to stretch over five days, an influx of RVs is also expected.
The one factor that could hold down the crowds, Schultz said, is cloudy weather.
“If it’s overcast or cloudy on April 8, we could see a fast exodus of people looking for a better view,” he said.
In communities that were in the path of totality in 2017, Schultz said they reported that a majority of visitors began leaving those areas “15 minutes after” the eclipse was over.
“There’s going to be traffic jams, there’s no way around it,” Schultz warned local officials.
The Niagara County Emergency Operations Center will go “live” on April 1 to manage eclipse-related activities.
The eclipse will cross into the U.S. at around 2:40 p.m. EDT, passing over Dallas and moving north across the country to Caribou, Maine. The next time an eclipse will cross North America, passing over Mexico, the United States, and Canada will be in 2044.
In a total eclipse, the moon passes between the sun and Earth, completely blocking the face of the sun. The sky will darken as if it were dawn or dusk.
Niagara County Sheriff Michael Filicetti said law enforcement teams will be “strategically stationed” around the county and on local waterways. The efforts will be a joint undertaking by local, state and federal police agencies.
“Everyone in the county is upstaffed,” Filicetti said. “I feel like we have a good handle on this. We’re prepared.”