State of emergency declared for the the solar eclipse in Niagara Falls

Ontario’s Niagara Region has declared a state of emergency as it prepares to welcome up to a million visitors for the solar eclipse in early April.

The total solar eclipse on April 8 will be the first to touch the province since 1979, and Niagara Falls was declared by National Geographic to be one of the best places to see it.

The city is in the path of totality, where the moon will entirely block the sun’s rays for a few minutes.

Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati said earlier in March that he expects the most visitors his city has ever seen in a single day.

The regional municipality of Niagara is proactively invoking a state of emergency to prepare for the event.

The declaration, announced Thursday, sets in motion some additional planning tools to ready for the day which could involve major traffic jams, heavier demands on emergency services and cell phone network overloads.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 29, 2024.