Texas county declares state of emergency
ahead of solar eclipse, with population
set to DOUBLE from influx of tourists
- as others snap up $1,000 Austin to Detroit
plane seats to view from the skies
Daily Mail (UK),
by
Dolores Chang
Original Article
Posted By: Imright,
2/25/2024 12:21:37 AM
A small Texas county has declared a state of emergency as its population of 400,000 is set to double, and even triple, ahead of the total solar eclipse in April.
Bell County officials in central Texas are gearing up for challenges like traffic congestion, fuel shortages, and strains on first responders, hospitals, and food supplies, as thousands of tourists are expected to flood the town.
County Judge David Blackburn said the emergency declaration will help the county plan for the eclipse and protect both residents and visitors, as reported by the Dallas Morning News.
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Reply 1 - Posted by:
Birddog 2/25/2024 1:00:25 AM (No. 1664689)
Someones "Marketing" is blowing up on them...several rural Texas towns tourism boards announced that they would be the "best" viewing spot several months ago...leading to this.
Even Texans will have to drive hours to get to those places, everyone else booking $$$$'s in airfare and then rental cars, hotel stays.
"Best viewing" will be 100% weather based, where are the skies going to be the clearest for that 10 minutes?
The same eclipse is passing over several fairly major population centers, including Indianapolis, Toledo(or just east of it) and Buffalo. All are readily accessible by car, plane, bus or train, fairly cheaply, hotels are cheap.
Best preplan option is likely "Go to Toledo", the day before, have a car...weather systems move from west to east pretty rapidly...Get the weather minute-cast the night before, and head either east or west in the AM...or stay put depending upon where it will be clearest. It hits around 3 in the afternoon there. Having seen several eclipses, I'm not going to do anything crazy about getting a guaranteed perfect view of this one....but...if it is going to be pretty clear I may go to the zoo, or maybe just to the duck pond nearby...Animals may react rather dramatically to a full eclipse, and that is perhaps more interesting to see than the eclipse itself.
9 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Birddog 2/25/2024 1:06:49 AM (No. 1664691)
It seems strange that people are booking flights that go from west to east to view it from the air...SHORTENING the time under it...smarter would be east to west, extending that time.
6 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
DVC 2/25/2024 1:07:46 AM (No. 1664692)
Silly over reaction.
14 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Rumblehog 2/25/2024 4:01:02 AM (No. 1664709)
Author Joseph Conrad might be surprise to discover that "darkness" sells.
5 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
privateer 2/25/2024 6:48:00 AM (No. 1664747)
The Hype Of Darkness.
5 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
Venturer 2/25/2024 7:11:01 AM (No. 1664753)
The best advice I can give them is to check with the South Dakota town of Sturgis.
This happens to them every year during Sturgis Bike week and they survive it.
They thrive on it.
9 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Lazyman 2/25/2024 7:58:20 AM (No. 1664775)
Hopefully God makes it last 3 hours to remind these idiots of what awaits them.
5 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
chumley 2/25/2024 8:13:15 AM (No. 1664779)
Get ready for a huge disappointment. You spend all that money, look at an eclipse for a little while, then the eclipse is over and your money is still gone and you have to go back home.
10 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
NamVet70 2/25/2024 8:40:11 AM (No. 1664795)
You'd think some of those people have never seen an eclipse before!
7 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
Skinnydip 2/25/2024 9:03:47 AM (No. 1664808)
An article about an eclipse without a map of its path. Great reporting, DM.
5 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
Gordon Mills 2/25/2024 10:47:22 AM (No. 1664863)
#2, West to East makes sense to me: The path of the eclipse continues from Mexico, entering the United States in Texas, and traveling through Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.
2 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
Birddog 2/25/2024 11:13:08 AM (No. 1664876)
It is not the sun/moon moving that makes them appear in the west, it is the earths turning. Traveling at hundreds of miles an hour in the same direction as the earths spin increase your relative velocity,...going counter rotational decreases it, "slows time".
2 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
zephyrgirl 2/25/2024 1:43:22 PM (No. 1664966)
I went up to Wyoming for the eclipse in 2017. Never again. The eclipse was worth seeing, but the traffic and hassle before and particularly after wasn't worth the time and money. All those people trying to leave at the same time guaranteed hours in bumper-to-bumper traffic.
Last October, we stayed on our driveway and watched the partial eclipse (around 90% coverage) through telescopes from our driveway. Much less aggravation and more fun because our neighbors dropped by and joined us. It was like a block party. We're planning on doing it again in April.
1 person likes this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
kennedylaw 2/25/2024 2:01:00 PM (No. 1664982)
We live in a rural area in Central Texas that is right in the middle of the projected path. Every hotel, motel, RV park and Airbnb within 50 miles is already booked. We are stocking up on groceries and are planning on staying home that week.
5 people like this.
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