Essex County goes to full emergency for eclipse

Lohr McKinstry, The Press-Republican, Plattsburgh, N.Y.
·2 min read

Apr. 3—ELIZABETHTOWN — Essex County has declared a preemptive State of Emergency ahead of Monday's total solar eclipse.

The Essex County Board of Supervisors and Chairman Shaun Gillilland (R-Willsboro) have declared a State of Emergency from 9 a.m. April 6 through 9 a.m. April 10 in anticipation of a significant influx of people coming to view the solar eclipse on April 8.

Preliminary estimates are that as many as 10,000 visitors could be coming to Essex County to view the eclipse. All hotels in the county are fully booked for the weekend, according to the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism.

The Lake Placid Village Board of Trustees approved an eclipse-related road closure from the Olympic Regional Development Authority to close Cummings Road on April 8 from its intersection with Main Street at the James C. Sheffield Olympic Speed Skating Oval to ORDA's parking lot by the Lake Placid Middle/High School. The road will be closed from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

ROOST has a planned solar eclipse party on the oval and Cummings Road would be used for parking vehicles with disabled parking permits, and the other lane left open for emergency traffic.

Gillilland said he has spoken to various state and local officials throughout the county and believes that Interstate-87 and county and town roadways will be severely congested, with travel times significantly delayed, possibly for hours.

State Police say bumper-to-bumper traffic on the Adirondack Northway (I-87) is possible as people leave after the eclipse and have called out extra personnel to manage the flow of traffic.

"The State Police have already gone out publicly and said to plan on 8 to 12 hours of gridlock on the Northway," Gilliland said.

Essex County is directly in the path of the eclipse, which will start around 2:13 p.m. in Lake Placid and end at 4:36 p.m. Totality will be at 3:26 p.m. for 3.5 minutes. ROOST believes the heaviest traffic will be starting at 4:30 p.m. when everyone tries to leave the area at the same time.

Gillilland said the State of Emergency is strictly a precautionary safety measure related to this anticipated high volume of visitors, traffic and possible cellular communications disruptions to the area.

"(It's) in order to protect the health, welfare and safety of Essex County residents and its visitors," he said.

Essex County offices will be closed on Monday, April 8, with the Office of Emergency Services, Sheriff's Department, Department of Public Works and other critical county agencies operating.

Hospital emergency rooms in the county are increasing staffing and local fire and EMS agencies are planning to be on standby.

"Some of our secondary highways and local roads are not designed to handle large volumes of traffic and, with the coming (end of week) snow storm and its aftermath, additional vigilance is needed," Gillilland said.