People Flock To North Georgia To View The Eclipse
Eclipse glasses have been hard to come by for the last couple weeks. Just be careful when selecting your eclipse glasses. NASA has a list of approved manufacturers.
MOLLY SAMUEL / WABE
Eclipse day is here, and revelers across the country are gearing up for the big event.
In Georgia, people are making the trek to the part of the state that’s in the solar eclipse’s path of totality.
Virginia Boudreaux and her family from Lafayette, Louisiana, traveled to a field in Dillard, Georgia, for the “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
For Boudreaux, her mom, grandmother, great-aunt and cousin, it’s family time.
“It’s just a good time for us to bond,” Boudreaux said. “It gets us close together.”
The state’s parks are also drawing crowds.
All 250 parking spots at Tallulah Gorge State Park were full by 7:30 this morning, according to Georgia State Parks spokesperson Kim Hatcher.
“As long as people were the first people in line to get in at Tallulah Gorge, they got in. There’s a lot of people who have set up tailgate areas, and tents, and picnicking, so it’s a really fun atmosphere,” Hatcher said.
National Weather Service meteorologist Lauren Merritt says the eclipse will take the path with 100 percent totality, in locations including Helen, Brasstown Bald, Blairsville and Hiawassee, at 2:35 p.m. Monday. She says it could last more than two minutes in the northeast part of the state.
Merritt says major cities in central Georgia, including Atlanta and Macon, will have more than 90 percent of the sun that will be eclipsed. She says that much of the state in the southwest will have 85 percent.
Damien Bawn traveled to Dillard from Ohio with his family to be in the path of totality.
“To be able to drive six hours to get to it, that’s once in a lifetime,” he said. “So I took the day off from work, and off we went.”
The next solar eclipse in the U.S. will be in 2024, on a path from Texas to New England.
WABE reporter Molly Samuel contributed to this report.
Top Stories
