(Ottawa) Ontario’s Niagara region has declared a state of emergency as it prepares to welcome up to a million visitors for the April 8 solar eclipse.
The total solar eclipse expected in about a week will be the first the province has seen since 1979. Niagara Falls was declared by the National Geographic as one of the best places to observe it.
Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati said in early March that he expected to receive the largest number of 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, implements additional planning tools to prepare for a day that could bring major traffic jams, heavier demands on emergency services and cell phone network overloads.