Solar eclipse: Is Greenville prepared?
It is known as the path of totality, and come August, Greenville will be one of the few cities in the world lying within it as a total solar eclipse sweeps across the United States from coast to coast for the first time in a nearly a century.
In totality, the grandeur of the universe and its celestial bodies is brought home to earthlings for a few short minutes, as the new moon completely blocks out the sun and casts a shadow so dark that in the middle of the day the stars appear.
People have traveled the world to be within the path — and not one millimeter outside it.
“The estimate is more than a million people from Florida upward, all the way to well past New York will come to totality,” said Greg Cornwell, who heads planetarium and public programs for the Roper Mountain Science Center, which has big plans for the Aug. 21 event. “We’ve already got groups that are coming from New York to our area.”
There’s no blueprint to plan for such a phenomenon.
Greenville, it appears, is still trying to figure one out.
The city’s plans “are not finalized at this point,” but officials “hope to release information soon,” public information and events director Angie Prosser said.
The city’s visitors and convention bureau, VisitGreenvilleSC, has created a "Yeah, That Eclipse" webpage, a play on its ubiquitous hashtag #yeahTHATgreenville. The page features a countdown clock, a few hotel packages and information about the events that will be hosted by the Roper Mountain Science Center.
At this point, hotels are beginning to book up, but no concerted plans have been put together, said Jessica Kalbarczyk, the visitor bureau's social media coordinator.
“Currently, we’re just kind of in the planning stages,” Kalbarczyk said. “We’re working with as many people as possible and pushing it.”
The Greenville County School District decided to move the first day of school from the Monday of the eclipse until the following day. The Legislature allowed a one-time exception to start school earlier this year to allow districts flexibility to stay closed and avoid confusion when the moon covers the sun near dismissal time.
The potential impact on traffic is uncertain, from small city streets to busy interstates, officials say.
At the state level, the Department of Public Safety said it is taking into account an expectation of increased traffic, and state troopers "are making plans in advance to monitor and assist with traffic issues that may arise," spokesman Kelley Hughes said.
The S.C. Emergency Management Division is "in conversations" with local emergency management agencies but has yet to receive any formal request for planning assistance, EMD spokesman Derec Becker said.
“The local areas that are planning for the eclipse events are continuing to organize,” Becker said.
Learning institutions are ahead of the curve.
Clemson University is planning a "mega-event" in hopes of drawing thousands to the campus that will be in the heart of the path of totality.
Likewise, the Roper Mountain Science Center has become a command post of information in Greenville, with its own plans to showcase its campus in the biggest astronomical event of its 32-year history.
And then there's Columbia, 90 miles to the south, embarking on an aggressive campaign to market a "Total Eclipse Weekend" and billing itself as "The Total Solar Eclipse Capital of the East Coast," even boasting the few seconds longer it will remain in darkness compared to Greenville and Charleston.
The stars will come out
Over the next couple of days, look toward the sky at around 2:30 p.m., and the sun will be in the place on the horizon that virtually every pair of eyes in Greenville will be looking come Aug. 21.
That's because the sun now is about an equal distance in days from either side of the summer solstice.
The Great American Total Solar Eclipse will begin in Oregon and cover 12 states, sweeping across the heartland, into Tennessee, through the remote North Carolina mountains, and the first shades of darkness will reach the Greenville area beginning about 1:07 p.m. before heading through Columbia and Charleston and off the Atlantic Coast.
The total eclipse will set in about 2:37 p.m. in Greenville and last for 2 minutes, 10 seconds.
The path of the shadow is about 100 miles wide and travels more than 1,000 mile per hour, Cornwell said.
The center-most portion of the path will pass generally over Clemson and Anderson and provide the longest duration of darkness.
From that center line out toward either side, the intensity of the shade will decrease. The outer portions reach almost to Spartanburg to the northeast and just barely down to Elberton, Georgia, to the southwest. Outside of that path, observers will be part of a partial solar eclipse.
“The key thing is getting into totality, because it’s such a once in a lifetime event," he said.
The total eclipse will plunge any place within its shadow into darkness, and the night-like sky will appear.
On that particular day, Cornwell said, the stars and the planet Venus will be visible to the naked eye.
The temperature will drop several degrees, he said, and animals will feel an instinct to fall asleep as the eclipse steadily sets in and then recedes. Roosters might even crow once the sun re-emerges.
Observers will need special glasses for the eclipse, because staring directly at the sun can damage the eyes. Clemson and Roper Mountain will provide glasses.
The last total solar eclipse in America occurred in 1979 in the Pacific Northwest.
A total solar eclipse crossing the entire continental U.S. hasn't happened since 1918.
The next total eclipse will occur in 2024 as it stretches from Mexico, across the American heartland and into Canada. A total eclipse won't pass through the Upstate again until 2078.
People with the means and motivation travel across the world to witness total eclipses, and Cornwell said the particular path of this eclipse will make it so that most Americans will be within a day's drive from the path of totality.
What will captivate the Upstate this time next year
Columbia out front
The city of Columbia in concert with its visitors bureau and the South Carolina State Museum are making a hard sell on the area.
On its website, the group, Total Eclipse Weekend Columbia, S.C., describes Columbia as the largest metro area on the East Coast in the path of totality and encourages local organizations to dream up ideas. The site offers a link to ordering eclipse glasses in bulk for 21 to 45 cents each, depending on whether they are customized or branded with the campaign visuals.
"Throughout the long weekend of August 18-21, 2017, attractions, cultural institutions, hospitality and retail businesses in Columbia, S.C. – the total solar eclipse capital of the East Coast – will host special eclipse-related events leading up to nature's grandest spectacle," its newly created website says.
“Greenville, in my opinion, has been way behind," Cornwell said. "Columbia is way ahead, and Charleston is way ahead.”
RELATED: Clemson preparing for once in a lifetime eclipse
The Roper Mountain Science Center expects to attract thousands to its campus, he said, and will show off its newly renovated planetarium and its refractor telescope that is the eighth-largest in the world. There will be a week of activities culminating in a large event over the weekend.
While Greenville hasn't developed a full plan beyond partnering with Roper Mountain, Kalbarczyk said local hotels are beginning to book guests over what the hospitality industry hopes will be an extended weekend event, with the eclipse taking place on a Monday.
“They’re already seeing a pretty big uptick on that long weekend," she said. “We’re trying to get people here for the long weekend, obviously stay in our hotels and enjoy our restaurants and watch something really cool on Monday for two whole minutes.”
The Westin Poinsett hotel downtown isn't offering an eclipse package because there are few rooms left to sell, though the hotel will provide glasses, general manager and partner Fabian Unterzaucher said.
"Guests vary from the professional eclipse chaser to the novice who wants to be part of the historic event," Unterzaucher said. "As Greenville lies perfectly in the path, it will bring a lot of people to our city to experience what is for most a once in a lifetime experience."
The Courtyard Marriott downtown still has rooms available and is offering a package that includes a viewing party on the veranda, said Daniel Lock, the hotel's director of sales.
As for the sheer number of people who could flock to the state, the State Emergency Management Division expects the eclipse to be "primarily a law enforcement crowd control and traffic management event," Becker said.
The division is considering the influx of traffic to be more akin to a major college football game than a large-scale movement of people that occurs during a hurricane, he said.
The EMD will increase its public awareness campaigns as the eclipse gets closer, Becker said.
Traffic congestion can occur on roadways as people might see a chance of clouds where they are and quickly try to drive to a clearer area.
The Department of Public Safety is preparing both for that and the possibility of drivers feeling compelled to stop on the interstate as day turns to night, Hughes said.
"The Highway Patrol will be asking motorists to plan ahead and designate a safe location off the roadway if they intend to view the eclipse," he said. "It is not only unsafe, but it is illegal to stop in the roadway or along access controlled highways (interstates) for reasons other than an emergency situation. "
Reporters Elizabeth LaFleur and Maayan Schechter contributed