Next month, Arkansas is expected to receive 300,000 to 1 million visitors in the state. The first weekend of April will be when the state will be under a solar eclipse, which is expected to bring tourists to the state.
In an interview with Arkansas PBS, Lorie Tudor, director of the Arkansas Department of Transportation, said ARDOT is preparing for the increased traffic that will result from the eclipse.
“We’ll have supplies for everybody that might end up in some kind of a traffic delay situation, like gasoline, water, food and medical supplies,” she said. “We have these all terrain small vehicles that we can get in and we use these during winter weather and other times, when the traffic is in a delay situation.”
A.J Gary, Director of the Arkansas Division of Emergency Management, said the department doesn’t expect any trouble with having this many people in the state, but the state is increasing the presence of law enforcement.
According to NASA, a solar eclipse is when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth and obscures the view of it. Residents should not look directly at the eclipse and instead should look at it using special glasses made for viewing eclipses, according to Arkansas State Parks.
