LIMA, OH (WLIO) - The eclipse is still about five weeks away, but the preparation efforts are already ramping up.
It's all hands on deck as the Allen County EMA plans for the total solar eclipse alongside area hospitals, law enforcement, and emergency services. Nobody knows for certain what could happen or how many people will travel to our area, but to get an idea, they talked to officials from Warren County, Kentucky, who hosted around 47,000 tourists during the August 2017 eclipse.
"After the totality and people began to leave the area is when we experienced the heaviest traffic congestion in exiting the area. It was quite an issue dealing with the traffic and it happened for several hours after the event. But that's one of the biggest concerns, and any time you have heavy traffic congestion, the possibility of accidents, getting emergency response crews to those scenes, and how to plan to be able to do that with that traffic congestion," explained Ronnie Pearson, the director of Emergency Management and Homeland Security in Bowling Green, Warren County, Kentucky.
At times, that congestion brought traffic to a standstill and wasn't fully cleared until around midnight. At the recommendation of Warren County officials, Lima area first responders are planning to have ready smaller, more mobile vehicles like ATVs to navigate heavy traffic if needed. Another concern that both emergency agencies and residents need to prepare for is the possibility of cell service outages.
"We do know just from historical events that we've had here in Allen County, we know at the fair we had issues with Verizon coverage in that area during the week of the fair, not just during concert day. So we're using that kind of as our planning model," said Tom Berger, director of the Allen County EMA. He recommends having access to a landline, or planning to use WiFi-based messaging or calling in case you can't find a signal.
Experts recommend that residents get their shopping and errands done before the day of the eclipse to avoid and reduce heavy traffic and stay home if you're able.
"Be patient, it's going to take time for the traffic to clear. And if people will be patient, there will be less irritability, and hopefully less accidents," Pearson advised.
"We're planning for the worst case scenario and we're praying for the best case scenario. We're praying that the congestion that does come to our area is manageable, we have no incidents, we have no mass casualty incidents," added Berger.
