Governor Hochul: “We have been preparing for this for many months and getting people excited. This is going to be great for our tourism. It's going to bring in thousands, if not millions of people to localities all the way along the trajectory of this.”
Hochul: “We're New Yorkers and we'll be prepared.”
Earlier today, two weeks ahead of the April 8 eclipse, Governor Kathy Hochul updated New Yorkers on the state’s preparations to ensure everyone can have a safe and memorable viewing experience. In October 2022, Governor Hochul convened an Interagency Task Force comprised of nearly two dozen state agencies and authorities. The Task Force has been collaborating for the past 17 months on plans to ensure everyone can safely enjoy the eclipse. New York State is expecting hundreds of thousands of visitors, and Governor Hochul is reminding travelers of several tips to ensure the smoothest possible experience for everyone. Governor Hochul is advising travelers to get to their destination early and plan on staying late to avoid the most traffic, allow for extra travel time, and travel prepared with water and snacks. Additionally, drivers should never pull over on the side of the road to ensure first responders can get by in an emergency.
B-ROLL of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
AUDIO of the Governor's remarks is available here.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
I'm really sorry I couldn't be there. I had hoped to join, but we're in the final days making real progress on the State Budget, which has a deadline that is looming, so I want to continue making the progress that we started, so I couldn't break away today, but this is really important that we take this opportunity to celebrate what is going to be a phenomenal event, and the epicenter of this — and I agree with the Buffalo Bills, we all love New York – the epicenter that the world will be watching will be in the great State of New York.
We have been preparing for this for many months and getting people excited. This is going to be great for our tourism. It's going to bring in thousands, if not millions of people to localities all the way along the trajectory of this — it's going to be Jamestown and Buffalo and Niagara Falls and Plattsburgh and everything in between.
So, we're excited. And as the Bills mentioned, there are some factors to consider and I'm going to leave that to my Commissioners and my Head of State Operations to explain more about it and to answer your questions about what this is going to be like, but we want to be prepared for this — take advantage of this exciting moment. This is New York’s chance to be in the sun and the limelight. And to make sure that we all do this in a smart, healthy way that people remember for generations to come.
We want to make sure you know where to watch, take the precautions and all the — we saw from the last experience many years ago that there were a lot of traffic jams and people running out of gas, and we're not going to let that happen in New York because we're New Yorkers and we'll be prepared. So that's what today's all about. So, I'm looking forward to hearing all the questions and all, but I do have to stay here and keep my head down and get this to over the finish line or into the end zone, as we would say at a Buffalo Bills game. Thank you everybody. And let me turn it back over to Kathryn Garcia, our Head of State Operations.
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