BUFFALO, N.Y. — As we've told you there is a lot of planning underway in advance of the April 8 total eclipse here in Western New York. On Monday we heard a bit more about emergency services and logistics from state and county officials.
Amidst the details, there are some concerns.
Scenes of very congested highways from Portland, Oregon, and other western states in the aftermath of the August 2017 total eclipse affected areas that may be haunting those in charge in Albany and emergency planners here in Western New York.
Kathryn Garcia, the State of New York Operations Director said, "The timing of the eclipse obviously in the late afternoon overlaps with our everyday evening rush hour. And this is a recipe for severe congestion. And as some of you may remember in 2017 in other parts of the U.S. there was severe traffic where people were in their cars for up to ten hours."
Some said it was up to 16 hours or so in some previous eclipse path locations.
So for the state of New York Homeland Security Commissioner Jackie Bray said, "We are surging personnel for the DOT, Thruway, and state police." They will also bring in assets like additional tow trucks, HELP assistance trucks with some gas supplies for motorists on "E", and mobile trailer electronic signs to be placed along highways.
State planners say they will make sure the Thruway rest stops have extra fuel and food supplies. They suggest private gasoline retailers, convenience stores, and the public do the same by topping off gas tanks and bringing snacks and water in their cars if they going somewhere to see the eclipse.
The state will have an emergency command post set up in this region along with Erie County and the City of Buffalo just as we have seen with past snow storms in the area.
There is no state of emergency declaration expected but there is plenty of emergency preparation Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said.
"They are pre-staging ambulance services in parts of the city as well as the county where we feel there may be an additional need. We even talked about depending on how bad the roads are - if someone has an emergency such as a stroke or heart attack - rather than transporting them by ambulance - there's a chance they'll be transported by helicopter through Mercy Flight or even the Erie County Sheriff's office can transport people through Air One."
Poloncarz notes with all the people, expect communication in an emergency could be very important and could be an issue.
"Right now our biggest concern is cellular communications. And not even for worrying about 'oh I can't post my photo on Instagram'. It's more of if somebody has an emergency and they need to call 9-1-1 can they get through?"
County Executive Poloncarz says Verizon will set up an extra mobile cell tower for downtown Buffalo but so far there is nothing from AT&T in that regard.
The state urges people to use 5-1-1 New York if they can get that on their phone, for traffic information that day and they will have mobile highway signs.
Also, they suggest having extra food and top off your gas tank or charging your EV beforehand if you are going out.
The crowd size "guesstimate" is up to hundreds of thousands or even a million visitors.
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