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County officials talk April 8 eclipse preparation
Putnam County could expect its population to temporarily double due to the Monday, April 8 total solar eclipse.
This was the word from Sheriff Jerrod Baugh when the subject came up during the first 2024 meeting of the Putnam County Commissioners on Tuesday.
The sheriff noted that he has taken part in state-level discussions on the matter, with officials from Indiana as well as other states that have previously had such events noting that preparations for lots of extra visitors need to be made.
“The population is going to double in Putnam County that day. Travel is going to be a problem,” Baugh noted. “If you’re from here, you need to stay home.”
In this light, the City of Greencastle has already considered setting up Big Walnut Sports Park as a possible viewing area.
Commissioner Rick Woodall noted that a DePauw physics professor is a customer at his business, and she also advised the county to prepare for an influx of people.
When a similar event crossed over Southern Illinois several years ago, the professor and a team of students tried to leave about five hours beforehand and got nowhere near their proposed destination as traffic became too clogged to get anywhere.
While what are considered the very best viewing locations are a bit south of Putnam County in a diagonal that passes much closer to places like Vincennes, Bloomington and southeastern Indianapolis, Greencastle is still set to experience more than three minutes of the moon completely blocking the sun.
“It is not apocalyptic – it is just a travel event,” Baugh said, noting that the Sheriff’s Office has canceled vacations for that day and with an all-hands-on-deck approach so deputies can address any needed traffic concerns.
The sheriff advised that the commissioners close county offices by noon if not for the entire day, noting that county employees will struggle to get home during their normal 4 p.m. commute.
All four local school districts have already taken such a step, canceling school for the day due to the total eclipse beginning at 3:05 p.m., right about the time schools release.
While expectations are in place for an extra influx of people in places like Greencastle and Cloverdale, Baugh noted that if April 8 is a sunny afternoon, there are likely to be people stopping on Interstate 70 both due to extra traffic and as people simply stop to view the eclipse. PCSO is asking local wrecker services to be prepared for vehicles to run out of gas while sitting in traffic.
“Our biggest concern that day is getting emergency medical services through,” Baugh noted.
Health Department Assistant Administrator Brian Williams also encouraged the commissioners to take the lead among local employers, saying that once a decision is made regarding the county schedule for that day, local industry should be advised to take similar steps.
“Their second shift isn’t going to be able to make it in anyway,” Williams noted.
One argument against the extensive preparations Indiana schools, municipalities and counties are making is that April 8 could be cloudy. Baugh said this may well be the case, and if so the overwhelming traffic event likely won’t take place.
This line of thinking cuts both ways, though, and if another part of the path of totality, which curves across the U.S. map from Southwestern Texas to Maine, is overcast, then Putnam County might expect even more visitors.
Baugh speculated there may be some eclipse watchers who wait until about 48 hours before the event before deciding to go to, say, Arkansas or Indiana.
In Indiana, the 120-mile-wide path of totality – the zone within which observers will see the moon totally obscure the sun for several minutes, plunging the area into darkness as if it were dawn or dusk – includes cities such as Indianapolis, Bloomington, Muncie, Terre Haute, Evansville and many other cities.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime event,” Baugh said. “We’re not going to see it again for a long time, and we need to plan for it.”
The commissioners expect to get a plan in place before February ends.