CLARKSVILLE, Ark. — With the total solar eclipse just over a week away, preparations are being made by many businesses in 5COUNTRY to deal with the expected influx of visitors.
“I think it'll be interesting,” Jim Looney, Airport Manager at the Clarksville Municipal Airport said. "We'll see what happens since we don't know exactly how many people are going to show up.”
Airports along the eclipse’s path of totality might see an increase in visitors in the upcoming days.
“I've had four different aircrafts call in and say that they're gonna be here that day,” Looney said. They wanted to make sure that we had space and fuel available.”
Looney said he will be on call all day just in case, helping to direct traffic from the ground.
According to Looney, nearby Russellville Regional Airport is expecting to be busy, and he said his airport will be available to handle their overflow.
“I've also got Survival Flight out of Russellville planning on using this as either an alternate base or their main base,” Looney said. “Russellville airport is expecting a great deal of traffic, so they told them that they might be too busy to be able to get in and get around and get fuel.”
And if seeing the eclipse on the ground isn't enough for some people, Paradise Valley Skydiving is taking a group up in the air to skydive during totality.
“We wanted to be available and let people jump at that time and say, ‘Hey, I jumped during the eclipse’,” Holly Moore, a staff member at Paradise Valley Skydiving said. “I don't know how many skydivers can say that. So we want to be on the map for that.”
Moore added that some people are planning to come out of state for this experience. She said that she wanted to show people everything that Clarksville has to offer, even after the eclipse is over.
“Clarksville is kind of small, but another reason why we wanted to do an event during that busy weekend is not just to give people the option to skydive during the eclipse, but then Clarksville has so much to offer,” Moore said.
Moore said she probably will not be able to skydive herself that day, but the experience for her will still be memorable.
“I'll probably be on the ground, but we'll probably see what we can do because it's kind of a once in a lifetime experience,” Moore said. “I'll be older by the next eclipse, so I don't know that skydiving is going to be in the cards for me, but at least at a minimum I'll be seeing the smiles from everyone else when they land, and that's enough for me."
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