FRANCONIA, N.H. (AP) — Thousands of visitors to northern New England communities in the path of the total solar eclipse have been urged to be patient for the journey. In some areas, they needed it up to 12 hours after the event started, returning home on crowded highways and back roads.
In New Hampshire, travelers were stuck in heavy traffic in the northern part of the state until at least 2 a.m. Tuesday, clogging southbound Interstate 93. Southbound traffic on Interstate 89 was also heavy Monday evening. Southbound traffic was halted in parts of Maine for several hours.
New England had clear skies and mild weather on Monday, creating ideal viewing conditions for totality. In New Hampshire, people flocked to places like Lancaster, Stewartstown, Colebrook and Pittsburg, near the Canadian border.
But the roads were flooded on the return trip and traffic came to a standstill in some areas.
“People were stopping on the side of the road to go to the bathroom, people were stopping to turn off their cars, sleeping in their cars all over (U.S.) Route 3,” said Scott Lacourse, who left his vacation home in Pittsburg with his wife and their two dogs at 6:30 p.m. They returned home to Londonderry, New Hampshire, nine hours later. That’s almost three times longer than usual.
“Every rest stop, every stop, anything, was full,” Lacourse said, adding that there was no cell service either.
Some people who had paper maps with them were making their way through back roads. Others ran out of gas and some broke down. Some people opted for the dangerous maneuver of crossing a median ditch and returning to the northbound lanes. At least one car was stuck in the ditch. Some people who tried to stop for fast food along the way were greeted by a long line and realized the staff had stopped taking orders.
Lacourse and his wife, Sirena Holobinko Bogdahn, thought if they left later in the day traffic would clear, but that wasn’t the case.
Even so, “it was worth it,” she said of watching the eclipse. “It was so amazing.”
John Martin, who was visiting from Massachusetts, described it as a “creep and a crawl” near Franconia, where Route 3 opens onto the Franconia Notch Parkway, a one-lane-in-each-direction mountain pass, before extend towards the multi-lane highway.
“You look at your GPS trying to get off Route 93 to find something a little faster, and everyone was thinking the same thing,” he told WMUR-TV.
New Hampshire state officials had warned travelers that the return could be slow and encouraged people to stay for a while in the region, which typically sees the most tourists during summer and foliage season. ‘autumn.
“To our out-of-state friends, remember: there is no sales tax in NH, so feel free to stay a little longer!” Governor Chris Sununu said Friday.
Traffic has also slowed to a crawl in other states.
In Maine, traffic on Route 4 south, from Rangeley to Farmington, was heavy and slow for several hours after the eclipse, but never completely stopped, with speeds averaging 8 to 15 mph over much of it. of the 40 miles of driving along the two-lane rural highway that crosses the mountains. and hills.
In Paducah, Kentucky, which was in the path of totality, as well as communities west of Illinois, thousands of people crossed the Ohio River after viewing the eclipse. Post-eclipse traffic also moved very slowly in places such as southbound Interstate 65 in southern Indiana and along southbound Interstate 81 in New York and Pennsylvania.
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McCormack reported from Concord, New Hampshire. Associated Press reporter Robert Bukaty in Portland, Maine, contributed to this report.
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