Ohio agencies monitor eclipse travel from emergency operations center

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX) — A once-in-a-lifetime experience in the skies turned into a once-in-a-lifetime waiting experience on the roads for many travelers after Monday’s total solar eclipse in Ohio.

PHOTOS: Buckeye Eclipse 2024

“This event, we’ve got dozens of counties, tens of thousands of square miles of people leaving at the same time, there is nothing to compare it to,” said Matt Bruning with the Ohio Department of Transportation.

More than 7 million Ohioans live around the 124-mile path of totality that stretches across the Buckeye State, with up to 500,000 out-of-state visitors e in Ohio to watch the celestial show.

“We have the Highway Patrol, the Department of Transportation fully staffed today,” said Karen Huey, assistant director of the Ohio Department of Public Safety.

ODOT tells WSYX that by noon, traffic was heavy coming out of Dayton, Cincinnati, Columbus, and around Toledo. After the eclipse, the traffic pattern was pretty much the same, except heading in the opposite direction.

“It seems as though everyone took the advice, planned their trips ahead, traffic moving as well as we had hoped for,” said Lt. Ray Santiago with the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

As a precaution, Gov. DeWine activated the state emergency operations center on Sunday, where more than a dozen state agencies were able to monitor traffic and crowds.

“This is a group that plans regularly. Even though everybody started planning for this last week, we started preparing two to three years ago,” said Huey.