Local emergency officials prepared for the eclipse

by Steve Dunford

As Franklin County falls in the four county corridor of areas that will have increased traffic flow from the eclipse, I talked with several emergency officials throughout the county yesterday to check their contingency plans.

Ryan Buckingham, of Franklin County Emergency management agency said the planning over the last several months consisted of four areas:

• Traffic Incident management
• Communications
• Increase in population for a few days
• Resource management of personnel

Buckingham states the Illinois State Police will monitor the situation here in Franklin, as well as the other three counties.  Also the communications hub with the Franklin County Sheriffs office will be activated, as it is in severe weather events and other hazards.

Franklin County EMA has an eclipse resource page on the county website.  Here is the following link below:

http://franklincountyil.gov/Eclipse

Derek Johnson, Chief Operating Officer of Franklin Hospital says they are fully staffed and supplied for the expected patient increase in the emergency room.  He says with the increased traffic on Interstate 57, and the recent history of accidents on the interstate,  there is the potential to have more patients in the emergency room than normal.  There will be extra staff on call, and they will have multiple ways of communication in case the cell phone grid goes down.

With the hundreds of thousands of people ascending on Jackson and Williamson Counties, Memorial Hospital of Carbondale, Heartland Regional Medical Center of Marion, and Herrin Hospital might be overran with patients.  He said there can be an increased number of traffic for people seeking care migrating north.

Johnson also said that the Walk-in clinic might be over ran with patients as well.  He recommended you calling before coming in, as the wait could possibly be long.  He stressed the ER is there, if you need them in the event of an emergency.

Shane Cockrum, Fire Chief of the Benton Fire Department, says his staff will be mobile during the event, in case there is a fire or other emergency, especially if there is an accident on Interstate 57,

He said the communities might have to take care of their own, instead of relying on mutual aid because of the traffic.

Bill Southerd, Christopher Police Chief, said they really don’t know what to expect.  He said there would be extra officers on in Christopher, as well as Sesser and Zeigler.

With State Route 148 right in the middle of the interstate and US 51, there could be people migrating to 148, especially if Route 37 is backed up.

Starting Friday afternoon, I will closely monitor the traffic situation across the county.   Other than possibly leaving for church on Sunday and watching the eclipse on Monday, I will be passing along emergency information.  If I am overloaded, you might check the Facebook page first before the website.