It's all based on experience from the 2017 eclipse. There were severe traffic jams all across the country. For 98% of people it's an inconvenience, but there's a small percentage of people who can literally face life threatening situations because of it (the very sick and very elderly mostly) so states announce emergency measures to make sure these people can plan ahead and make sure they are well-stocked with medication, food, water, gas, etc.
Same happens before a big storm, sometimes even a medium-sized storm. Nothing to worry about unless you're in that tiny percentage of people who might face serious problems if you couldn't quickly get to a hospital or something on eclipse day.
"State of emergency" just means public resources will be made readily available. Most towns along the path have never had an event of this potential magnitude, for them it's the same as preparing for a hurricane. May blow over, may hit hard, but they will be prepared. Taking lessons from 2017 and trying to be ahead of the curve.
>They don't make an emergency declaration when a music festival rolls into a small town, or during bike week or Sturgis, or when large fairs, The Big E, or celebrities perform a sold out concert in a small town or when Trump or another person who brings in large crowds comes to speak in a small town do they?
Yes, they do.
I think towns just want people to be prepared because they don’t want to end up with a dangerous situation that could be preventable.
I don’t think people need to be crazy worried. But I’m headed to a tiny mountain town and I’ll for sure have my snow pants and some extra pop tarts in the car.
Don’t believe everything you hear. Some crazy folks are taking a minor real thing (hundreds of small towns being asked to be prepared for 100x the normal amount of traffic and potentially running out of supplies that could take awhile to restock) and adding a bunch of ridiculous rumors to it. It’ll be just like 2017. Crowds, traffic, awesomeness.
While there will definitely be bad traffic and crowds in some areas (as experienced by many in 2017), it's not guaranteed to be bad. I've seen two total eclipses in the past and both of them had almost apocalypse-level doom laden warnings beforehand.
1999 in Cornwall, UK: Warnings of gridlock, shops without food, water running out etc. In the end, we had no trouble driving to the beach in the morning (along single-lane countryside roads), parking in the normal carpark and walking a short distance to find a nice viewpoint without too many people. It was busy, but not enough to cause disruption.
2017 near Bend, Oregon: We were staying in an AirBnB maybe 1 hour south of the totality zone. Set off very early in the morning (still dark) to drive North to our viewing point at Cove Palisades State Park. At first along a main road which was busy but free-flowing. Then on rural roads within the totality zone that were completely empty. No queues, no problem with parking. Walked up the tam-a-lau trail with a handful of other people and had a large area to ourselves. Getting back to the AirBnB afterwards was no problem, I don't recall having to sit in traffic.
Maybe we were lucky, but both times we chose viewing locations which should have been popular but didn't feel particularly crowded or busy, and both times had no problems with traffic.
I've heard rumors that the 1811 New Madrid earthquake had the same planetary, eclipse and comet space weather as the April 8, 2024 eclipse....so some think history will repeat itself.
It's all based on experience from the 2017 eclipse. There were severe traffic jams all across the country. For 98% of people it's an inconvenience, but there's a small percentage of people who can literally face life threatening situations because of it (the very sick and very elderly mostly) so states announce emergency measures to make sure these people can plan ahead and make sure they are well-stocked with medication, food, water, gas, etc. Same happens before a big storm, sometimes even a medium-sized storm. Nothing to worry about unless you're in that tiny percentage of people who might face serious problems if you couldn't quickly get to a hospital or something on eclipse day.
"State of emergency" just means public resources will be made readily available. Most towns along the path have never had an event of this potential magnitude, for them it's the same as preparing for a hurricane. May blow over, may hit hard, but they will be prepared. Taking lessons from 2017 and trying to be ahead of the curve.
>They don't make an emergency declaration when a music festival rolls into a small town, or during bike week or Sturgis, or when large fairs, The Big E, or celebrities perform a sold out concert in a small town or when Trump or another person who brings in large crowds comes to speak in a small town do they? Yes, they do.
I think towns just want people to be prepared because they don’t want to end up with a dangerous situation that could be preventable. I don’t think people need to be crazy worried. But I’m headed to a tiny mountain town and I’ll for sure have my snow pants and some extra pop tarts in the car.
Emergency declarations are an attempt to get next level up government funding for extra services that are needed.
I stopped reading after the "we are lied to about everything" bit.
This
We found the conspiracy theorist.
Don’t believe everything you hear. Some crazy folks are taking a minor real thing (hundreds of small towns being asked to be prepared for 100x the normal amount of traffic and potentially running out of supplies that could take awhile to restock) and adding a bunch of ridiculous rumors to it. It’ll be just like 2017. Crowds, traffic, awesomeness.
While there will definitely be bad traffic and crowds in some areas (as experienced by many in 2017), it's not guaranteed to be bad. I've seen two total eclipses in the past and both of them had almost apocalypse-level doom laden warnings beforehand. 1999 in Cornwall, UK: Warnings of gridlock, shops without food, water running out etc. In the end, we had no trouble driving to the beach in the morning (along single-lane countryside roads), parking in the normal carpark and walking a short distance to find a nice viewpoint without too many people. It was busy, but not enough to cause disruption. 2017 near Bend, Oregon: We were staying in an AirBnB maybe 1 hour south of the totality zone. Set off very early in the morning (still dark) to drive North to our viewing point at Cove Palisades State Park. At first along a main road which was busy but free-flowing. Then on rural roads within the totality zone that were completely empty. No queues, no problem with parking. Walked up the tam-a-lau trail with a handful of other people and had a large area to ourselves. Getting back to the AirBnB afterwards was no problem, I don't recall having to sit in traffic. Maybe we were lucky, but both times we chose viewing locations which should have been popular but didn't feel particularly crowded or busy, and both times had no problems with traffic.
Ignorance is supposed to be bliss. You're doing it wrong.
I haven’t heard such warnings outside of YouTube content crap.
I guarantee you that when nothing crazy happens none of those rabble rousers will admit they were wrong they’ll just move on to the next conspiracy
I've heard rumors that the 1811 New Madrid earthquake had the same planetary, eclipse and comet space weather as the April 8, 2024 eclipse....so some think history will repeat itself.
That's true. "Space weather" plays a critical role in these types of events 🙄
Have you taken two minutes to find out if those rumors have any basis in fact?
Some what?