KCRag Forum

swid wrote:I'm a little biased, but if I was planning to find a near-optimal spot that's less than a day's drive away, I'd go to the Nebraska Sandhills. Wide open spaces and a very good chance of clear skies in August.

mean wrote:Hard to believe this forum is almost 20 years old. Sheesh. In no time we'll have to buy it a beer.

“We have a playbook that we follow for big events,” said Chris Hernandez, a spokesman for Kansas City, Missouri. “Just a few years ago, we won the World Series [and had] about 800,000 people crowded into downtown for one day.”

Gridlocks are expected across the U.S. for several days before and after the eclipse.

“It is similar to what would happen for an evacuation for a hurricane,” said Howard Duvall, councilman for Columbia, South Carolina.

To help the public grasp the size of these traffic jams, Duvall said it’s easier, and less frightening to compare the impact to a football game, even if no football game aside from the Super Bowl can really get close to the scale of traffic. “This is going to be like having 10 Carolina-Clemson football games on the same day,” Duvall said.

Regular deliveries might also get stuck in transit, so grocery stores, gas stations and even hospitals have to think about supply chain concerns in the weeks before eclipse travelers get on the road.

Hospitals have begun ordering extra medicine for their patients for that week, plus some supplies to treat an influx of minor injuries that go hand-in-hand with large crowds, like heat stroke.

Gas stations have been warned to keep up with supply that week, Kelley said. “We certainly don’t want a run on gas,” she said.

Cell phone service and smartphone internet are expected to be unavailable inside the path of totality due to the large concentration of people. So visitors should go old-school and print out directions and reservations for hotels and campsites.

City officials will need to know how to access emergency channels. Cell phone companies are beefing up their network capacity for emergency responders, but not increasing capacity for commercial use, according to a Verizon spokesperson.

Some visitors may be inclined to stand on top of parking garages to get the best view, said Duvall, who has a background in hardware supply management. But due to the weight distribution of people versus cars, he cautioned that in a particularly extreme scenario, hundreds of people standing on a parking garage could cause a collapse.

Some responders will turn to more outdated technology. Brad Kieserman, Vice President for Disaster Operations and Logistics for the American Red Cross, said the Red Cross will rely on ham radio to communicate with their staff and volunteers.

WSPanic wrote:By the way, we really should be using this thread... http://kcrag.com/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=1 ... it=eclipse

beautyfromashes wrote:What time does the eclipse start? How long does it take for the whole cycle?

Highlander wrote:I've heard that nearly all the hotels are booked in KC for Monday's eclipse. Any evidence of tourists being there in droves?