Kyle plans for 2024 eclipse

KYLE — At approximately 1:30 p.m. on April 8, in the western part of Hays County, a total solar eclipse will appear, leaving Kyle residents to experience a 99.8% occlusion.

According to the National Weather Service, the last time a total solar eclipse occurred in Central Texas was in 1878 and after this year’s, the next won’t appear until 2317. Due to the immense number of individuals that will flock to the area, the city of Kyle has prepared to maintain the safety of residents.

Kyle expects a range from 250,000 to 1.25 million visitors, based on estimates from the Texas Department of Transportation and the Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Centre (CATRAC). Will Paiz-Tabash, emergency management coordinator for the city of Kyle, noted that they are also gauging this number based on the hotel, Airbnb, RV site bookings, etc. Because of this traffic, city officials encourage community members to gather essential items, but not bulk buying, and ensure that vehicles are properly fueled beforehand.

“While Kyle is not directly in the path of the totality, it is adjacent to the path, leading to an expectation that we will experience a huge surge in traffic moving from east to west and then returning east after the event. The current expectation is that traffic prior to the event will come in over the course of several days,” read the agenda documents. “While [traffic leaving] will occur in the hours after the event, causing the bulk of the impact.”

“I[H]-35 has always been a parking lot; it will continue to remain so,” said Paiz-Tabash.

The county is assembling resources for the cities and Sun Coast Resources is contracted by the state for emergency fuel.

According to the city, during the last total eclipse in 2017, Kentucky saw an increase in traffic, which estimated 300,000 visitors, while Oregon estimated a million visitors and received nearly 2 million, causing all highways to be brought to a gridlock, the National Guard was activated to help clear roads and calls for 911 service increased, while response times also increased due to the immense amount of traffic. The same event in Tennessee led to fires started due to vehicles idling on dry grass along shoulders and spaces of the highway.

In the event that the cell phone towers get overwhelmed, Paiz-Tabash stated that Kyle has a landline backup and will also be able to maintain emergency communications, which will be all-hands-on-deck.

The Kyle Police Department will be working to ensure traffic flows and the fire department will be staged throughout the city. This is rare, as they typically stay housed at the stations, but in preparation of an emergency, staging will attempt to decrease response time.

“We have been meeting regularly with the county and we’ve also been having — what I’m calling — tri-city meetings with Buda and San Marcos [to coordinate],” said Paiz-Tabash.

Hays CISD, along with several other school districts in the area, has opted to close schools for the event.

More safety tips include:

• Never look directly at an eclipse without eye protection while the sun is moving into and out of the eclipse, unless using eclipse glasses or viewers

• Get glasses early, as the event nears, they will be difficult to obtain

• Sign up for emergency alerts at www.warncentraltexas.org

• Prepare for cell service interruption or lack of service

• Pre-map routes

• Carry cash in case credit card machines are not working

For more information, visit www.cityofkyle.com/communications/2024-solar-eclipse or www.haysinformed.com/solareclipse.