It was obvious to me in the early days, that lots of other people were deciding to travel to the Eclipse, news outlets wouldn’t let you forget it. They estimated that about 1,500,000 million people would be traveling to Oregon for the event. This is where it starts, where it can be first seen. Other states would likely see an increase in visitors, but Oregon would probably see the most, as this is where it all starts and it has the nation’s most populous state, CA, as its neighbor.
Oregon’s population is about 4 million with about ½ of those residing in metro Portland. 1.5 million extra visitors is an increase state-wide of 38%, which is pretty impressive, but when you realize that outside greater Portland, basically the entire rest of the state there are only 2 million people scattered among 60 small cities and towns, then the 1.5 million extra visitors result in an increase of 75%. Taking this a step further, there are only 20 recognized cities or towns within the path of totality, the largest being Salem with 175,000 and Corvalis with 60,000. The remaining 18 towns range from a few hundred to less than 10,000. I estimated there are less than 400,000 living in the path of totality, where arguably 90% of the 1.5 million are headed. That means that within the path of totality, an increase of 1.5 million visitors results in a growth of 375% in 2-3 days. That means that unless you are 100% self-contained and mobile, the chances of your finding food, housing, including hygiene, gasoline or supplies of any kind is slim to none. Just a fraction of the people invading Oregon will be able to book a motel, a camp sight or an RV space, eat in any kind of restaurant, diner or fast-food place or buy or restock food. Most of the towns in the path of totality don’t even have a fast-food franchise. It actually gets a little worse because Portland, will outside the zone of totality and many will be leaving Portland, heading south to be within the zone of totality. A significant part of this book dealt with finding a way to swim upstream against a tsunami of visitor, all going to basically the same place at the same time.
