How to enjoy and survive a 'once in a lifetime' total solar eclipse

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This August 21, the United States will experience its first coast-to-coast total solar eclipse in 99 years.

What makes this one so special for Americans is that it will cut diagonally across the entire US continent. The last time a total solar eclipse swept the whole width of the country was in 1918. No tickets are required for this Monday matinee, just special eclipse glasses so you don’t ruin your eyes.

Wear special eclipse glasses so you don’t ruin your eyes. /VCG Photo

The path of the totality (meaning total darkness) will begin near Lincoln City, Oregon, as the lunar shadow makes its way into the US. This path will be 60 to 70 miles wide. The closer to the center, the longer the totality. Totality will cross from Oregon into Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina and, finally, South Carolina. It will also pass over tiny slivers of Montana and Iowa. The eclipse will last longest near Carbondale, Illinois, approximately two minutes and 40 seconds.

One million eclipse chasers expected to flood Oregon

Madras, a small town in Oregon, is predicted to be among the country’s best viewing spots because of its clear, high-desert skies, flat landscape and stunning mountain views.

Up to one million eclipse chasers will descend on Oregon for the celestial event, and officials are bracing for as many as 100,000 of them in and around Madras. In this vast expanse of ranches and farms, rural, two-lane roads could mean traffic jams of cosmic proportions. Every hotel in Madras is fully booked, some residents are renting their homes for 3,000 US dollars a night, and campers are expected to flood the national forests and grasslands during peak wildfire season.

Joe Krenowicz, executive director of the Madras-Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce, points to Mt. Jefferson as the sun rises over Madras, Oregon on June 13, 2017. /AP Photo

"You’ve got to be prepared or you won’t enjoy it”

“Bring extra water, bring food. You need to be prepared to be able to survive on your own for 24 to 48 to 72 hours, just like you would in any sort of emergency,” said Dave Thompson, spokesman for the Oregon Department of Transportation. “This is pretty much an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and it’s really worth seeing. But you’ve got to be prepared or you won’t enjoy it.”

Concerns from local authorities

As the expectations go up, authorities are increasingly worried that people who planned to watch from the notoriously foggy coast could move east at the last minute if the forecast sours. And Oregonians who live outside the path of totality could decide to drive to one of the prime viewing spots at the spur of the moment, creating havoc on the roads, said Cory Grogan, spokesman for the Oregon Office of Emergency Management.

A poster advertising the August 21 total solar eclipse hangs in the window of a McDonald’s restaurant in Madras, Oregon on June 12, 2017. /AP Photo

In addition, many tourists will be camping in hot, tinder-dry conditions, or even sleeping in their cars. First responders have been planning for months for a worst-case scenario: evacuating tens of thousands of people while trying to get fire engines through gridlocked roads. Cellular towers also may be crippled by the volume of people texting, calling and posting photos, making it difficult for fire crews to communicate.

Federal and local officials will stage engines and other resources at key locations, and firefighters from other agencies and private companies will send extra crews. But it’s impossible to plan for everything, and tourists frustrated with traffic may use forest access roads as shortcuts, further raising fire risk, said Kent Koeller, a recreation planner with US Forest Service outside Madras.

An advertisement for a festival built around the August 21 total solar eclipse sits alongside a busy road leading into Madras, Oregon on June 13, 2017. /AP Photo

The town and surrounding campsites have rented nearly 700 portable toilets, including some from as far as Idaho, to meet demand. Sanitation trucks will run almost around the clock, transporting trash to 46-meter-long dumpsters before it rots in triple-digit temperatures.

Gas stations are filling their underground tanks in advance, and businesses are being told to use cash only, to avoid bringing down the wireless network. Banks are stocking their ATMs, local hospitals have canceled vacations, and pregnant women close to their due dates are being told to leave to avoid getting stuck.

"It was really something to see"

On February 26, 1979, eclipse enthusiasts gathered at Observatory Hill in Goldendale, Wash., to watch a solar eclipse. /AP Photo

Darlene Hoffman is one of the few who watched the last total solar eclipse to touch Madras 38 years ago. Hoffman, 80, recalled how the birds stopped singing and the horses prepared to sleep as the sky gradually darkened and a hush fell over the land.

“It was really something to see. It really was,” she said. “That amazed me more than anything.”

(Source: AP)

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