I have no real idea what loss of 16.9 gwt hours really amounts to, concerning impact... and also there is a range of numbers up to a colossal number, of visitor “invaders” expected for the eclipse, although I don’t know how these hundreds of thousands can be gaged before the event. Probably making it a day trip.
Anyway. Buying supplies a week in advance was advised even for the suberbs.
A perfect storm, *reed. I think, if Gov Abbott feels obligated to assign NG to the path of Texas cities, without interfering with NG on the Rio Grande.🥴 I haven’t heard that he has done so.
It might be messy, with open carry, but I think citizens can arrest in Texas. I know they could in Oklahoma in the past, even before they had to be permitted, licensed, certified, registered, and trussed up like a Christmas turkey, in order to own and carry. 😵💫
Draw a line perpendicular to the path of totality and extending out for approximately 500 miles in either direction. Consider that in that area, all along the path, that almost all people in the first 100 miles in either direction will move into totality, about 80% 100-200 miles, 60% 200-300 miles etc down to 20% for 500+.
IIRC a million+ came out of the LA area up to the Oregon totality areas on the last one. Traffic was epic. It took me 12+ hours to get back from NE Oregon to Ashland on the last one and I took 17 gallons of gasoline in cans to avoid having to stop at stations. It was another 7-8 back to Bay Area from there after some sleep.
When it’s over, hoards of people start the return drive, and when traffic locked up in bottle neck areas/crossroads people just pulled over and got out and walked around. Stands popped up in every podunk. Traffic was so slow at times that passengers would get out of vehicles and walk several miles next to them to stretch and not be cooped up.
Recall that the last one was in the first year of Trump’s first term. Things were pretty upbeat, economy was improving, we had not experienced CoVid and its mutation of politicians into authoritarian douchebags, and we did NOT have 10 million+ fresh, unvetted free ranging illegal aliens all over the place with a fat lot of potential enemy combatants mingled amongst them…
If you can get to it to see/experience it it is a must see event, but plan accordingly and be prepared for ANYTHING whether going to it or staying home.