TW - yeah, inadequate infrastructure is the issue here, too. Our area is listed in every top 5 list, despite the weather channel publishing that map where Idaho was missing entirely! I was kind of hoping that would put a damper on the tourism lol. "Okay, we can go to Oregon, or we can skip that strange void and go to Wyoming..."
Most of the totality path through idaho has basically ZERO light pollution, so the "dark skies" enthusiasts are out in force. Got plenty of dark skies right now...thanks a lot wildfire season. I don't want to think about how bad it's going to be when all of the city dwellers who aren't usually campers and don't acknowledge burn bans all pitch a WalMart pup tent in the forest and try to burn it down...
The single north-south interstate through the area will be converted to ALL lanes north only in the morning and ALL lanes south in the evening. If you need to go the other way, take the old highways...along with the jillion other people doing the same thing trying to get out of the interstate traffic. Our towers, grid, roads, stores and gas stations just don't have the ability to handle that many extra people...they're saying if you travel, plan to start the Wednesday before and be stuck until the Wednesday after.
Already had alerts about people hitching onto people's RVs and driving off...looks like folks' entrepreneurial spirit is already coming out. Even if you stay home, ALL of our police will be managing traffic chaos somewhere, and most of our residents will be out stuck on the road, so if you're an opportunistic criminal, there will be plenty of opportunity.
