MARION, Ohio — The total solar eclipse is a little more than a month away and communities along the path of totality are finalizing their safety plans for the day.
When 10TV checked in with Marion County in November, plans were just starting. Now, those are becoming clearer. Sarah McNamee, Marion County Emergency Management director, said they’re finishing up plans on where they will have emergency services stationed around the county.
“Public safety and public works have primarily finished off those plans and have a good game plan for not just the day of the eclipse but the weekend before and the time period after,” McNamee said.
She said traffic after the eclipse will be their biggest concern that day.
“That’s been a huge challenge for us to try and prepare for. We’ve had a lot of messaging out to the community asking them if they are making plans, if they’re going to host people, for places doing events, even if they are smaller events. We’ve asked them to have something going on after the eclipse,” she said. “It can help us figure out how to get traffic out safely and in a timely fashion by extending some of those events out.”
It's not just the traffic on the ground that is being planned for. The Marion Municipal Airport is asking pilots to call ahead of time so management can ensure there is enough space and supplies are available for transient airplanes.
“I don’t want to get overrun, if you will. I want to make sure we have enough fuel, enough supplies and transportation for people,” said Matt Arnold. “Once we get around 200, there’s not a lot of room to park airplanes unless we start parking in the grass.”
He said, if the weather is right, there’s a chance of lot of small planes will descend upon the small airports like Marion, Lima, Marysville and others.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen. In 2017, there were some small airports that got 400 aircraft,” Arnold said.
Flight data tracking company FlightAware published data after the 2017 eclipse. It tracked more than 2,700 flights traveling through the path of the eclipse. Regional airports in or near totality also saw a 60% increase in traffic compared to normal.
Arnold said the FAA will be issuing NOTAMs, Notice to Air Missions, formerly Notice to Airmen, in the days leading up to the eclipse regarding these smaller airports and expectations for eclipse day.
He said since he put out the call February 20, only a couple pilots have reached out to him and hopes more do in the coming days and weeks.
“I can’t tell people they can’t land here, but I can advise them we’re full,” he said.
It’s not just about making sure there’s enough space. It’s a safety issue as well.
Marion is a small airport without an air traffic controller, seeing between 50 to 100 planes coming and going on nice days. Pilots themselves are responsible for handling their own surroundings at these airports.
“Most will be general aviation aviators who aren’t talking to anybody. That’s a concern for safety. Multiple people trying to land at the same time. There’s not a control tower. Hopefully they’re talking to each other and I’ll be down here listening to the radios,” he said.
In town, hotels are already filling up.
“We have a lot of hotels that don’t have any availability for the night before the eclipse, that Sunday night,” said McNamee. “We have a couple hotels that have a couple rooms just in case someone gets stuck.”
Even with all the planning, there is still a lot of uncertainty going into that day.
“Is it going to be rainy that day? Is it going to be sunny? I think a lot of people are waiting for that information before they decide to travel,” said Arnold.