Niagara County prepares for crush of visitors as 'once in a lifetime' solar eclipse nears

Mar. 2—It's been just over 99 years since the last time a total solar eclipse turned the daytime skies dark in Western New York.

With "totality" arriving again on April 8, emergency management officials in Niagara County are planning for how to best prepare for an event expected to bring hundreds of thousands — some have speculated even a million — visitors to the Falls and the greater Niagara Region.

"It's going to bring a lot of people to the county, more than we typically see on the Fourth of July," said Niagara County Emergency Management Director Jonathan Schultz. "What the numbers will look like, we don't know, but we're preparing for the high end."

Schultz said reports from local tourism officials indicate that much of the region's available hotel, motel, bed and breakfast, and AirBnB rooms have been booked for the period between April 5 through April 9. Couple that with eclipse-related events scheduled at venues throughout that period and Schultz said local EMS and fire and police services will new a game plan for how to handle the anticipated crowds.

"The combination of Niagara Falls, a natural wonder of the world, and an eclipse will create crowds and traffic that we need to be ready for," Schultz said.

Niagara County Sheriff Michael Fillcetti echoed that sentiment, saying he believes it will be better "to be over-prepared than under-prepared."

"In large crowds, anything can happen," the sheriff said. "We're expecting large numbers of people, traffic back-ups, and even potential issues with cell phone coverage."

Filicetti said the local planning has included looking at the issues that arose at other locations that have experienced total solar eclipses.

"We know that the people come for more than just the (day of the) eclipse," he said. "I love the thought that (the number of visitors) would exceed a regular holiday, but how many people and how much traffic are we going to have to deal with? It won't be business as usual."

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.

The path that the moon's shadow falls into on the earth is the Path of Totality, which will be experienced in the Falls and the greater Niagara Region. NASA experts have described the eclipse as "a once-in-a-lifetime event."

Filicetti said that officials expect that eclipse viewing will take place on both land and water. The sheriff said that means law enforcement and emergency services will need to have marine resources available much earlier than they would normally.

"We don't normally have our (patrol) boats in the water in April," the sheriff said, while noting that the U.S. Coast Guard and Border Patrol and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) will also provide water safety resources. "This has become a very complicated planning issue."

Both Filcetti and Schultz stressed that the planning efforts are not just targeted at handling the expected influx of visitors. They said local residents will need to be prepared to make changes to their daily routines as well.

"Our roads, highways, don't have the capacity to handle the traffic we expect," the sheriff said.

To avoid getting trapped in gridlock, Schultz suggests that country residents start planning now for how they'll handle the crowds.

"We expect heavy traffic from Thursday (April 4) to Tuesday (April 9), so local schools are closed to keep their busses off the roads," Schultz said. "You might want to fill your gas tank before the visitors arrive because they'll be looking for gas too."

The emergency services director also suggests doing grocery shopping and other errands before that weekend.

"Don't make appointments for (the day of the eclipse) and if you have to, go early in the day," Schultz said.

He said hundreds of hours of planning, including tabletop exercises, have gone into developing the eclipse plans.

"We plan for the worst and hope for the best," Schultz said with a sigh.