States prepping for total eclipse like it’s an impending natural disaster
Life in the age of professional cuddling.
Americans have dealt with some devastating natural disasters in their history. Some examples include Hurricane Katrina, the eruption of Mount St. Helens, and the 1906 San Fransisco Earthquake.
We have even experienced many solar eclipses since our nation’s inception, varying in degree of darkness. Generally, the eclipses have generated more wonder than chaos.
However, in this new millennium, it appears that this spectacular natural event must be treated as a potential disaster.
Americans across the U.S. will see the country’s first coast-to-coast solar eclipse in 99 years. While millions of people get ready to watch the Aug. 21 eclipse, local authorities are the treating the event more like a natural disaster and are preparing for the worst.
The disaster prep work stems from the massive tourist attraction the solar eclipse has become. The eclipse’s path of totality, where the moon will almost completely block the sun, covers a 70-mile-wide lane that will cut across 12 states from Oregon to South Carolina. There are an estimated 12 million people in the eclipse’s path.
…Several counties in Idaho and Oregon have already issued emergency declarations. Local officials are citing increased public safety risks, financial damage, and excess costs of cleanup and property damage for the alerts.
On the East Coast, officials in South Carolina are reportedly stocking up on bottled water and port-a-potty services to prepare for the influx of tourists. The Red Cross is also setting up emergency shelters in the 12 affected states to help with possible emergencies that may overwhelm local governments.
I guess this is the approach our political class feels it must take, in the age of professional cuddling in the wake of political elections.
It makes me wonder how we might respond to a truly significant natural disaster:
As for myself, I am doing a little preparation as well: Gathering the ingredients together for an Eclipse cocktail!
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Comments
We’re all going to die!!! Quick, somebody sacrifice some virgins!
No, no, no! You’re supposed to buy eclipse credits from Al Gore.
just where were you going to find virgins today
Sounds like Y2 panic, but I am sure traffic will be an issue. Pee when you get the chance and make sure you have water. Yawn.
We’re in the middle of it. I’m gearing up to have a great weekend. Other businesses are closing down, including the banks. Our sleepy little town doesn’t have the road system to handle an influx like this, so it may be a major problem. Or it may be like a holiday weekend. We’ll know shortly.
The safety problem with these things is usually people trying to watch while driving.
the country’s first coast-to-coast solar eclipse in 99 years
Eh, big deal. As Tip O’Neil didn’t say, “All eclipses are local.”
Some will experience the umbra. Me? I’ll continue to live in the penumbra, including watching the penumbra from New England.
Ever since (1965) the USSC, acting as the Divine Oracle, authorizing itself to be the sole reader of the Constitution’s invisible ink, I’ve been cast into the hinterland of penumbras. Preferring the express consent-of-the-people over the implied, I’ve never really settled in that hinterland.
LOL: I see what you did there. 😀 😉
Of course the issues are cars and bathrooms same as it always was. What’s interesting about the eclipse is that the giant escaping gas jets are escaping right now; and, we have to remember that when we will be “amazed” or “awed” or “affected” just because we can see them for a change.
You forgot “unprecedented”.
I’m surely not the only one hoping that this is a countrywide Darwin event, with many blinded, with the subsequent crashes and walking in front of trains.
Am I?
Liars….
Could the combined gravitation pull of the sun and moon trigger an eruption in Yellowstone? I’ll be keeping a close watch from Florida.
Maybe people will beat gongs and shoot off fire works to scare the demon that is devouring the Sun, just like in the “Dark Ages”.
People respond to crises rationally when they are surprised. When given time to prepare, preening on the public stage is too irresistible for some.
Seeming instead of being.
That’s what the age of social media has wrought.
Local officials are citing increased public safety risks, financial damage, and excess costs of cleanup and property damage for the alerts.
Sounds like what happens every time a bunch of liberals gather to protest the outrage du jour. Why aren’t they treated like a natural disaster?
All this eclipse hype is another way to separate the public from their cash by the government.
This is, simply put, idiot prevention. The country coast-to-coast has sold out of ‘eclipse glasses’ and the scammers are making good money off of selling crap that will blind people. Huge chunks of the populace a hundred miles or so away from the path of totality will be traveling into it, most of them on the day of the event, and most of them unaware of the traffic that will result.
Sadly, we will be one of those idiots. (My wife is a science teacher)
We can bring our own bottles of water. Finding a potty, though…
Google isn’t your friend, but it will help find this.
http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/BoyScouts/TeachingLeaveNoTrace/053c_dispose.aspx
Here is another option.. https://www.amazon.com/Reliance-Products-Portable-Lightweight-Self-Contained/dp/B000FIDZLI
Yeah, we are driving into it, and then out of it. The out is what is worrying me the most. And I bought a portable “potty” similar to Liz’s suggestion. But I have 5 kids that will need to go (probably on the bumber-to-bumber drive OUT).
But I am going to be there. We bought glasses months ago when they were only 1.10/pair. I am pretty excited.
Solar panels hardest hit.
This is actually a real possible problem. Solar panels don’t work very well when the light levels drop below a certain amount, and you have to have enough reserve on hand to deal with the demand it won’t cover. Furthermore, that reserve has to be on-line before the eclipse starts.
I just hope that during these stressful eclipse times that the Rev. Hillary doesn’t decide to pass out the grape Kool-Aid.
That’s an interesting drink recipe… raspberries and bourbon.
I checked if there were other variations, but of course there are. Everyone is getting in the action, even Krispy Kreme…
http://www.businessinsider.com/krispy-kreme-eclipse-chocolate-glazed-doughnut-2017-8
Way back in mid-last century, long before the Internet and social media displaced Walter Cronkite as that’s the way it is, before Dick Tracy’s wrist TV and James T. Kirk’s communicators became Apple watches and iPhones, the path of a full solar eclipse passed over Chicago.
At first the skies darkened. Darkness grew until the sun went black. Billy goats were slaughtered in Wrigley Field in offering to the Gods for the sun to return. Mayhem and bedlam erupted city-wide. There was deadly violence in the streets.
Then a first small sliver of light appeared. The sun grew into a crescent, then a quarter orb, half orb. The sky returned to an azure blue. The sun soon shone bright, its heat bringing comforting warmth to the people below. The Gods were pleased.
The temperature and humidity began to skyrocket. The people sweltered. Billy goats were slaughtered in Wrigley Field in offering to the Gods for the arctic air of winter to return. Mayhem and bedlam erupted city-wide. There was deadly violence in the streets.