Just four days out from Monday’s total solar eclipse, local officials are making their final preparations and urging residents to do the same.
“We are ready. We have done about all we can do,” said Brad Gilbert, director of the Union County Emergency Management Agency.
On April 8, 2024, a total solar eclipse, dubbed as the Great American Eclipse, will cross America, sweeping northeast from Texas to Maine. Ohio is directly in the path of totality — the area where the total sun will be eclipsed.
A partial eclipse will begin in Marysville at 1:55 p.m. The total eclipse will begin in Marysville at 3:10 p.m. and last 2 minutes and 56 seconds.
The last time a total eclipse was visible in Ohio was 1806. The next solar eclipse in Ohio will be in 2099.
“It could be a huge event, or it could be just another day,” Gilbert said. “We just don’t know so we are trying to be as prepared as we can be.”
Gilbert said the EMA will establish an Emergency Operations Center on Friday, ahead of the eclipse.
“We aren’t expecting anything, but we want to be prepared and have the EOC ready as people may start coming into the area in case there is an issue,” Gilbert said.
He said the EOC will have representatives from law enforcement, public health, emergency medical responders, public information and other services.
“We will have our Emergency Operations Center open that day just to help track everything, coordinate, if something does happen, figure out the best way to mitigate or address those issues,” Gilbert said.
He has said Union County could see the population double on Monday, noting that Ohio is within a one-day drive of 70% of the U.S. population. Officials said that in addition to the local population increasing for the day, there could also be a lot of additional traffic as visitors drive through to other prime viewing areas. Those extra vehicles cause delays as well as demands on public safety officials and infrastructure.
“You could see a lot of people driving in,” Gilbert said, though he said he believes many visitors will stay in Franklin County and drive to their viewing spot on Monday morning.
He added, “our primary concern is the couple of hours before the eclipse when traffic may be the heavy and when people are leaving the area after.”
He said that traffic will be heavy that day, but it only takes one crash to back-up roads even more.
Gilbert is recommending residents log into the Union County Health Department’s dedicated eclipse website, www.UCHD.net/eclipse for real time traffic updates and emergency messages. He said updates will also be available on 1620 AM radio, though that service will be a bit delayed and only available in a 10-mile radius of Marysville. He said there will also be message boards in and around Marysville to offer traffic updates.
He said the EMA and first responders have been planning for this event for more than two years. He said local officials have been talking with representatives from other parts of the country that experienced a total solar eclipse in 2017. Gilbert said there were communities that saw hours-long traffic delays.
The Southeast Hardin/Northwest Union County Fire District will have equipment stationed at the Washington Township Hall in Byhalia and the Northwestern Fire District will have equipment stationed at the Richwood Gun and Game Club. He said there will be different vehicles, like gators, stationed around the county to make getting through potential traffic standstills easier.
“We are trying to think outside the box on some of those things,” Gilbert said.
Other police and fire departments and the sheriff’s office will all have additional staff on hand and stationed around the community “to handle other calls,” Gilbert said.
When it comes to residents handling calls, Gilbert recommends switching phones from 5G to 4G because it will “work better.”
“Our cell tower service is built for our population so if we double our population or just bring in an extra half and everybody is trying to send videos to their grandma of this great eclipse they just saw, or they are calling, cell service is going to be minimal,” Gilbert said.
Many emergency responders will have radios on hand to deal with cell reception issues. Gilbert said additional radio operators that work with the Union and Franklin county EMAs will be on hand at various fire departments, at the hospital, at the sheriff’s office, just for an extra layer of communication so that if the county radio system goes down or cell service goes down, we have an extra layer to get information to the fire department and to the hospital.
Even if residents don’t care about the eclipse, they will be impacted.
“We kind of have been telling people to kind of treat this a little bit like a blizzard coming in. We don’t know what your afternoon might look like, so don’t wait until that afternoon to say ‘Oh, I wanted to go to the pharmacy’ or ‘I wanted to go to the grocery store’ or ‘I wanted to get gas.’”
He recommended residents “do your Monday shopping on Sunday and understand that it could be a couple extra days for places to restock.”
Overall, Gilbert suggests patience and civility.
“We have been preparing for this for two and a half years. We are planning for the worst and hoping for the best so I think we are in the best position we can be in,” Gilbert said. “Hopefully people stay safe and enjoy themselves.”