With excitement for next month’s building, many authorities across the path of totality are preparing for an influx of visitors, putting out warnings to residents to expect disruption. One of the latest comes from a Texas judge, who has urged pet owners to make sure that they’re stocked up on supplies for their furry friends.
Kerr County in Texas sits in the path of totality, and it’s expected that its normal population of 53,000 could at least double or triple in the days leading up to and during the eclipse. As a result, on March 4, Judge Rob Kelly issued a disaster declaration “in the interest of the safety of all our residents.”
“We expect that kind of visiting traffic here to cause extreme traffic congestion on our roadways, place an enormous strain on our first responders and hospital systems, drain our food and fuel supplies and strain our city and county infrastructure to, quite possibly, over capacity,” Kelly said in a .
Encouraging residents to stay at home on the day where possible, Kelly also urged residents to make sure they have all necessary supplies stocked up in the week leading up to the event, including those for animals.
“I would encourage you to make sure your vehicles are tanked up, that you have sufficient grocery supplies, that your prescriptions are filled and that you are stocked up on provisions for any animals in your care over the duration of eclipse weekend,” said the judge, though a later also warned residents not to hoard.
With some schools in Texas now also , people may well find themselves at home with both their kids and their pets and looking for entertainment in lieu of heading out into the crowds.
If that happens to include you, then don’t worry – there are still plenty of ways you and your animal pals can join in on the fun. There’s nothing to say you can’t watch the eclipse from your own backyard, though you should definitely check out .
And there are not just interesting things to see in the sky either – you might want to keep an eye on what your pets are doing too. Animals can act during a solar eclipse, and the citizen science project is encouraging members of the public to gather data on animal behavior, including that of pets, during the event.