From Mexico to Canada with your nose in the air. How the astronomical event of the year went
(NEW YORK) North America with an upturned nose and sometimes approximate eye protection for an event that fascinates, arouses primordial emotions, and for once does not arouse ideological opposition. And which, as always in the States, becomes business. Millions of Americans moved to the territories in which it was possible to see the total solar eclipse, (the most beautiful photos here) a 185 kilometer wide band that diagonally crossed the continent from Mazatlàn, on the Mexican coast on the Pacific, to Gander, the last strip of Canadian Newfoundland extending into the Atlantic. Eclipse partially visible across the United States, but the total one was only for 30 million Americans from cities like Indianapolis, Cleveland, Buffalo with the nearby Niagara Falls which attracted a river of tourists, kept in suspense by the clouds which threatened to obscure a phenomenon which, here, it won’t happen again until 2044.
Tourists
In the states closest to the path of the total eclipse, Airbnb accommodation bookings increased tenfold while demand for Hertz cars grew 30-fold. 120 thousand tourists arrived on the beach of Mazatlan, bringing 30 million dollars in additional revenue to the city. Then the eclipse arrived in Texas where San Antonio economists calculated a tourism business of almost 300 million dollars defined «the most profitable 22 minutes in Texas history». Profitable but disappointing: a blanket of clouds made the total eclipse almost invisible, as it passed over large cities such as Austin and Dallas.
Curious: clouds over Texas and clear skies on the Atlantic coast often plagued by bad weather. 50,000 enjoyed the show in the parking lots of the Indianapolis racetrack. Hours of discussion waiting for those three exciting minutes. Conversations poised between spirituality and science. But, above all, people who meet and talk, breaking the loneliness fueled by digital technology that disconnects us from physical life. But smartphones are also active during the eclipse.
NASA
NASA asked citizens to help science measuring the biological, temperature and behavioral changes of animals and plants with special apps during the darkening of the sun.
Even in New York there was great excitement and people flocked to the parks to see a 90 percent eclipse.
Jessica DeCerce, the city official named “eclipse czar,” has spent the last two years preparing the city for anomalous movements of people that could paralyze traffic and congest telecommunications networks. For days, commuters have been invited to arrive in the city very early and leave very late. Traffic, however, welcome to Gander: once a strategic airport, the first American landing place for Atlantic fliers, then abandoned in the jet age. It had never seen as many visitors as yesterday since September 11, 2001 when, after the attack on the Twin Towers, many flights were diverted here.
April 9, 2024 (modified April 9, 2024 | 10:04)
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