Six months later, what did cities learn from the solar eclipse? Plan, plan, plan.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime event for many cities and towns across the U.S. 

April’s eclipse, by some estimates, was expected to bring billions of dollars in economic impact, especially to communities along the path of totality where the eclipse lasted the longest. That path traveled northeast across the U.S. from near Eagle Pass, Texas, through the Midwest and up to the Northeast before exiting near Houlton, Maine.

For those communities, planning started as much as 18 months before the April 8 eclipse, with meetings between various agency heads, public safety, tourism authorities and economic development departments ramping up as the date came closer. Traffic impacts and other safety issues had to be discussed, as well as potential events and other efforts to tie in with the eclipse.

Nearly six months later, city leaders in the communities in the eclipse’s path of totality are looking back at the lessons learned. One of the takeaways: All of the preplanning came in especially handy for cities and towns when they were confronted with events they didn’t plan for. 

A week out from the eclipse, a storm dumped more than two-and-a-half feet of snow on parts of Vermont in the path of totality. Officials in the town of Barre, Vermont, were particularly worried that road conditions could be treacherous for vehicles and pedestrians arriving in town to view the eclipse. Barre expected between 50,000 and 250,000 people and an extra 60,000 vehicles on the roads.

“We’re a small state, and then what would that mean?” Chris Violette, the town manager, said at a session during the International City/County Management Association’s annual conference in Pittsburgh this week. “Would that mean a lot of extra accidents? Would people be stopping on the roads right at totality; the highways, the interstates, would they be jammed with people? Would they run out of fuel? Would [electric] cars lose their charge and not be able to get charged? Those were some of the big things that we were thinking about.”

Many governors declared a state of emergency in the lead-up to the eclipse, including in Arkansas, Indiana and Ohio, while many local governments took similar action. Those leaders anticipated a massive growth in visitors and were concerned about not being able to act quickly enough if there were issues.

Some towns drew on lessons learned from prior events. That was the case in Oxford, Ohio, which has a population of around 23,000, with around 18,000 of those students at Miami University of Ohio. Jessica Greene, the assistant city manager said The city was keen to avoid what she called the “Josh Groban incident,” where the singer-songwriter’s 2005 concert on campus led to massive traffic delays as an unexpectedly high number of fans traveled in.

As a result, Oxford drew on its experience hosting graduation weekend, which typically welcomes around 30,000 visitors. The city also encouraged the university not to cancel classes, as students with free time were likely to party and cause issues for the city’s already stretched emergency responders.

“Those students study hard, but guess what else they do? Party hard,” Greene said. “If they had been out that day and not in class, our public safety would have been overrun and they know that, so they kept students in class. Our local school district did cancel school, but that's not the same impact.”

Despite multijurisdictional planning involving the county and state, as well as a moratorium on police taking time off, Greene said Oxford still had to “pray that it worked.”

And it did, as the expected number of visitors materialized. It meant traffic levels jumped around 16%, Greene said, but they also generated 25% more in lodging fees from local hotels and short-term rentals through Airbnb, and more sales for restaurants and retail stores.

Some communities took advantage of existing public spaces like parks to host watch parties. Aaron Werner, the executive director of the tourism authority in McKinney, Texas, said the city used one of its parking garages. “We don't have mountains; we have a parking garage,” he said. “That's the highest thing we have, and so we had to get creative with that.”

Greene said Oxford turned the eclipse into a multi day event so that people would “linger” and spend more money, although she and Barre’s Violette said they urged residents to “hunker down” and be well stocked on groceries, fuel and other necessities given the expected crowds. Oxford put on a street festival, races and other activities to coincide with eclipse weekend.

Violette noted that the path of totality “literally split our town in half,” as the south of the town was not in shade from the eclipse while the north was. While Barre didn’t plan large formal events, the town was prepared for the knock-on effects of people leaving other nearby spots to find a less busy viewing area, so made sure to make space, especially in its north.

In budgeting for the big event, Greene took an “educated gamble” on how much money to spend preparing for and promoting the eclipse. If the weather in Oxford, for instance, had not cooperated, all that planning and those expenditures would have been “moot.” In the end, preparing for the worst and biggest impacts is worth it, she said, as it beats the alternative of having the city make headlines for the wrong reasons.

“People gave us the biggest flack,” Greene said, “but we took it, because we'd rather be prepared than not.”