What to know about Presque Isle State Park officials' plan on handling 2024 eclipse crowd
Matt Greene is looking for about 50 fellow Pennsylvania Department of Conservation of Natural Resources employees to travel to Erie and work at Presque Isle State Park on April 8.
Early April is usually a slow time at the park, but the solar eclipse that day is expected to bring up to 30,000 people to Presque Isle, depending on the weather, said Greene, the park's operations manager.
"We will have between 40 and 50 staff working April 8, counting both seasonal and full time," Greene said. "We are trying to get double that, so we're looking for volunteers among DCNR personnel to work in Erie for the day."
While nearly all of northwestern Pennsylvania is within the path of total eclipse, it will last a few seconds longer at Presque Isle than at places further south.
Greene and other park officials have already been meeting to discuss how they will handle the anticipated crowds. They have come up with three possible ways how the event will happen, all depending on the weather.
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"Plan A is that it's a beautiful, sunny day and we get 30,000 people at the park," Greene said. "Plan B is that it's cloudy and rainy, and we see fewer people. Plan C is that we get a snowstorm, which can happen in early April, and we have to plow."
Nearly all of the 80 to 100 park staff on duty that day will be working crowd control, Greene said. No educational programs or other events will be scheduled that day on the peninsula.
Where will crowds likely gather at the peninsula to watch the eclipse?
Since the eclipse will be best seen on the Lake Erie side of the park, visitors will be directed to Beaches 6 and 8.
"We can put large crowds into those areas and we have the bathrooms and other facilities they will need," Greene said. "Though the eclipse only lasts a few minutes, we expect people will arrive hours ahead of time."
Though people will likely arrive at the park in a staggered fashion during the morning and early afternoon, Greene expects most of them to leave just moments after the eclipse is finished.
The park might convert one of its two incoming lanes for outgoing vehicles to ease traffic.
"I expect it will be like a hot, summer weekend day when a storm with lightning comes through," Greene said. "Everyone will try to leave at the same time."
The park will likely offer various eclipse-related educational programs in the months leading up to the event, Greene said. Anyone interested should visit bit.ly/PresqueIsleSP.
Contact David Bruce at dbruce@timesnews.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @ETNBruce.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Presque Isle State Park forming plans to deal with April 8 eclipse
