Newsweek magazine compares the August 21, 2017 total solar eclipse, which reaches landfall in Oregon and spans the entire US, to a possible “disaster-like” scenario, based on the expected traffic jams and cellphone overloads, especially in places ill-prepared to handle them: http://www.newsweek.com/solar-eclipse-space-national-disaster-solar-eclipse-prep-643766 . Some facilities are rescheduling patients to keep August 21, a Monday, open, but in some places the flood of visitors could also cause travel problems on the days before and after the eclipse.
The center of the eclipse path enters central Oregon at Lincoln Beach at 9am PDT, crosses I-5 between Salem and Albany, runs near Madras, John Day, and Ontario in Oregon, then near Rexburg in Idaho, finishing by 1pm PDT and MDT. However, the path of totality is 70 miles wide, so the zone of greatest congestion will include Newport, McMinnville, Woodburn, Corvallis, Lebanon, and Redmond OR, and Idaho Falls ID. Traffic congestion before and after could extend to Tillamook, Astoria, Florence, Portland and its suburbs and exurbs, Eugene-Springfield, Bend, The Dalles, Pendleton, Hermiston and La Grande in Oregon, the Treasure Valley, Blackfoot, and Pocatello in Idaho, and possibly even Butte and Bozeman in Montana, and in Washington Vancouver, Walla Walla, and the Tri-Cities.
Networks are required by CMS to track the status of facility operations and patient access to treatment during emergency events. If the operations of your facility, or ability for patients to have access to dialysis are impacted by emergency events of any kind, please let your Network know right away. For Network 16, contact Lisa Hall at LHall@nw16.esrd.net or 206-923-0714. We also ask that you fill out and submit the Network Disaster Reporting Form, which you can find at https://nwrn.org/files/E/Interruptions.pdf .
