NORWALK, Ohio — When Erin and Matt Lydy took over a bed and breakfast in Norwalk in January 2020, one of their first reservations stood out from the others.
"An astronomer from Eastern Michigan University calls and says, 'I want to book a room for April 8, 2024,'" Matt Lydy said. "And we’re like, why? Then we started researching about it and realized this is a huge deal."
By 2021, Graham's Crossing Bed and Breakfast was booked up for the phenomenon. Today, they have a wait list of 50 people deep for the day.
The solar eclipse line of totality currently cuts through Huron County and Norwalk, where it is expected to have one of the longest total eclipse times in the state.
Kevin Rasnick oversees both the Huron County Chamber of Commerce and the Norwalk Area Visitors Bureau and told News 5 that this county of about 60,000 people could see its population double or triple.
"Certainly on a day like today, we’ll see less people," he said. "But if it's beautiful and sunny, we're probably going to see the northern end of that number."
Rasnick said there would be food trucks as well as portable toilets set up throughout to help accommodate the influx of visitors.
Kye Stevens, administrative assistant for Huron County Emergency Management, told News 5 that whether it’s traffic backing up their smaller roads, or cell phones taking videos or using GPS and overloading the towers, they're doing what they can to prepare.
"We have never dealt with anything like this before," he said. "The Summit Motorsports Park we have here on the east side of town, when they have big events, people have a hard time getting reception. So imagine that but across the county. With the bigger cities, they have better built infrastructure and more resources than a small county and city like us."
Stevens said for the past several years, the agency has spoken with other places that have hosted this level of eclipse totality.
As a result, all schools in the county are slated to be off that day. Stevens added they’re planning on testing their emergency communications systems later this month, just like they would for a tornado or Amber Alert to notify those in the county in case something happens.
The solar eclipse is expected to begin at 3:12 p.m. on April 8 in Norwalk, lasting for nearly four minutes.
To learn more about how Norwalk and Huron County are preparing for the eclipse and the events happening, CLICK HERE.
Our new Eclipse Explorer lets you track where Oct. 14's "ring of fire" solar eclipse will pass over North, Central, and South America—down to the exact second.
— NASA (@NASA) October 3, 2023
Check it out: https://t.co/lfk3ZLBWqQ pic.twitter.com/qZf5a2oY2R
