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.

Press Release from Kyle Bacon, Vice President of  Helping Hands Habitat for Humanity of Franklin County

BENTON, IL  – Kyle Bacon, Vice President of Helping Hands of Franklin County, HfH, the local chaper of Habitat for Humanity accepted a $2,000 check issued by Disney Worldwide Services, Inc. from Mark and Kristan Berning, employees of Walt Disney World.

Mark a lead database engineer, and Kristan a labor and staffing analyst for Disney, designated grant funds for Helping Hands when they were awarded the 2017 Disney VoluntEARS Family of the Year Award which they and their 10 year-old daughter Lauren, earned by volunteering over 330 hours while participating in Disney’s employee VoulntEARS program.

Annual volunteer awards are presented to Disney Cast Members who make a difference in Central Florida.  As part of the recognition, VoulntEARS of the year honorees are presented with a $2000 charitable grant form the Walt Disney Company to go toward a non profit organization of their choice.

Kristan, who is originally from Benton, said, “It is my hope these funds will be able to provide your organization the opportunity to help people in the community who are deserving and in need.  I selected Helping Hands of Franklin County because I can see each time we visited my grandmother, Susie Willis, during the summer there is clearly a need to provide for so many in need.”

Bacon thanked the Berings for selecting Helping Hands for the grant and for their many volunteer hours.  He said, “This money will help us give a low income family the opportunity to purchase a newly constructed home.  We have completed our 14th home in West Frankfort and will build our 15th home in Benton.  As soon as we receive sufficient additional donations, we will begin construction.”

Frank Grounds, a Helping Hands Director who also attended the presentation said, “Habitat is an organization that gives people a hand up, not a hand out.  Selected families are given the opportunity to purchase a home with a 20 year interest free loan and are responsible for paying the annual insurance premium and real estate taxes, which are prorated and added to their monthly payment.

Persons wanting to make a tax deductible donation may make their check payable to Helping Hands of Franklin County, and mail it to PO box 34, Benton IL, 62812.

https://eclipse.aas.org/eye-safety/iso-certification

(From the American Astronomical Society.  Please click on the link above for the full answer.  Here is the introduction what they call the short answer below.)

We used to say that you should look for evidence that they comply with the ISO 12312-2 international safety standard for filters for direct viewing of the Sun. But now the marketplace is being flooded by counterfeit eclipse glasses that are labeled as if they’re ISO-compliant when in fact they are not. So now we suggest that you make sure you get (or got) your eclipse viewers from one of the suppliers listed on our Reputable Vendors of Solar Filters & Viewers page.