CLEVELAND — Cleveland’s light is shining a bit brighter after drawing people both near and far for an eventful and historic weekend.
“It was a great experience. I thought Cleveland did a wonderful job,” said Akta Rajani.
Rajani says she flew in this past weekend to watch the Women’s Final Four.
“We got to see some amazing games and got to see the sport of women’s basketball just grow and grow,” said Rajani.
Meanwhile, some people drove from out of state, like Jacqui Stewart who came from Delaware, to catch the once-in-a-lifetime moment where the moon eclipsed the sun.
“Originally, I was going to Erie just because it was a little closer to home, but unfortunately, clouds started rolling in, and rain, so we took our six-and-a-half-hour trip and drove another hour and 45 minutes,” said Stewart.
Local residents like Erik Stropko said this past weekend left him with a lot of Cleveland pride as he celebrates his second Guardians’ home opener with friends.
“You see everything going on with all the other cities and everything and you really start to figure, you know like, I think with the Browns and the way our teams going, the way the city is moving, I think this year is Cleveland’s year,” said Stropko.
Festivities in Cleveland all began on Friday for the NCAA Women’s Final Four. Thousands saw the South Carolina Gamecocks win the National Championship on Sunday.
Less than 24 hours later, Clevelanders like David Williams braced themselves for their next adventure: the solar eclipse.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime event,” said Williams.
Snapping pictures, Williams told News 5 he felt nervous when he saw clouds and rain early Monday morning.
But he said when those conditions cleared, he and Stewart felt more at ease.
“Just to know you’re a part of it,” said Stewart.
As Stewart and others leave Cleveland feeling fulfilled after this weekend’s events, ODOT Press Secretary Matt Bruning said the state had a lot of visitors, especially for the eclipse.
“This eclipse event was multiple counties, tens of thousands of square miles of Ohio and millions and millions of people. This was not just tens of thousands of people,” said ODOT Press Secretary Matt Bruning.
Bruning said they did see heavy congestion in areas like Toledo, Cincinnati, Dayton and in Southwest Ohio near Pennsylvania.
But he said most people followed ODOT’s warnings, which made things much smoother than originally expected.
