LUNA PIER, Mich. —
Only a small sliver of Michigan will be in the path of totality for the total solar eclipse on Monday, including parts of Erie and Bedford townships and the city of Luna Pier.
Luna Pier will be in totality for 26 seconds, but Mayor Jim Gardner is asking people to find another place to stop and watch the event since construction presents a potential traffic issue.
The Luna Pier Road bridge over I-75 is the main way in and out of town but is under construction.
"If we try to have a mass amount of people exiting at the same time, it's really going to be a problem," Gardner said.
The city, which is less than 1.7 square miles and has a population of 1,300 people, relies on tourism.
"Visitors to our restaurants and our businesses in town here," Gardner said. "Normally we would say 'Come on in here,' and we do welcome everybody to come during the summer and enjoy our beach and our pier, but it's going to be challenging having everybody here all at once."
Gardner said he would tell people to try farther south in Toledo because other places will be in totality for longer and have the resources to handle more people.
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The city is still preparing for visitors, though.
"We are getting help from other agencies and getting all the officers that are available to just kind of watch over the situation," Gardner said. "We don't know how many people will be here. It's something that's impossible to predict. It's like predicting the weather in April in Michigan."
Gardner said people should still prepare for extra traffic on April 8 and make preparations to get gas and food beforehand.