Evansville to Become "Eclipseville" in 2024

Evansville IN

12 April, 2022

9:51 AM

Description

By John Gibson, WNIN April 12, 2022 Officials are gearing up for an astronomical event that's two years away. A committee called Destination Eclipseville is getting ready for a total eclipse of the sun on April 8th, 2024. Mitch Luman from the Evansville Museum of Science and Industry can barely contain himself: "It's going to get dark and it's going to be amazing." Luman says Evansville will be in the totality zone for about 2.5 minutes that afternoon: "Well this is an extraordinary opportunity for not only residents but people from all over the country to come to Evansville and see an event which won't happen again for decades." Josh Armstrong heads-up the Downtown Evansville Economic Improvement District. He says the event could double the city's population: "We need our businesses to understand the impact having an extra 150,000 people in our community, from stocking extra gasoline to making sure that our hotels are set up for these experiences." Luman is hoping area school systems employ e-learning on eclipse day: "We've just begun our work in this and hopefully all school organizations will take this into account and make this a learning opportunity for each and every one." The 2017 eclipse drew tens-of-thousands of people to western Kentucky and boosted hotel occupancy in Evansville. WNIN is the NPR/PBS affiliate in Evansville, Indiana. We serve Southwestern Indiana, Western Kentucky and Southern Illinois from our multimedia facility located on the Ohio River in downtown Evansville. For the past several years, the recognized quality of our local news has placed us among the best small market radio news organizations in the nation.