A “mixed bag” of reports about eclipse traffic so far

by Steve Dunford

I-57 southbound between the Sesser and Benton exits yesterday afternoon. (Tanyah Eubanks photo)

During a lot of winter weather events, it seems that Southern Illinois sits on the line of receiving rain/snow/sleet.  Over the years WSIL-TV Chief Meteorologist Jim Rasor has used the term “mixed bag of precipitation”.  It seems like local businesses are reporting the same thing.

Leigh Caldwell, co-host of the WJPF morning news watch with Tom Miller, sent out a plea on social media to the locals.  She stated, there was no problem with traffic between Carterville and Carbondale.  She went to Carbondale twice during the day.  She said that local businesses were dead and requested that everyone in Southern Illinois get out and enjoy the local festivals.

River Radio, especially WJPF, has committed to give people that are residents of Southern Illinois and tourists up to the minute news coverage about the eclipse.

There have been reports of traffic tie-ups for days in the Pacific Northwest, trying to get a good viewing spot to see the eclipse. Accu-weather.com has the area rated as good in that region, with Southern Illinois and most of the Midwest rated as fair.  I am wondering if that resulted in less traffic.

There was an SUV that caught fire on Interstate 57, just north of the Johnston City exit around mid morning.  The above photo was taken yesterday afternoon on I-57 between the Sesser and Benton exits.

On the other side of the coin, there were reports of traffic and local business being busier than usual.  Mindy Vanfossan of Hometown T-Shirts and Graphics said they had a very busy day yesterday.  It was (and maybe still is) one of the few places with eclipse glasses still.

Jim Emberton, of the Zeigler Police department, stated the town had around a 50% increase in traffic yesterday, with a lot of out of state plates in the city.

WSIL-TV said that Mary Lou’s grill, which is on the north side of the strip in Carbondale, was very busy, after a summer that was slow.  If there are some tourists that read this, the food there is awesome, especially the biscuits and gravy in a nostalgic setting.

Channel 3 also had another report the campgrounds are filling up quickly.

Personally, I feel the biggest of traffic for Franklin County will be tomorrow afternoon after the eclipse, until around noon on Tuesday.  I will be monitoring the situation closely until then.