The total solar eclipse will shroud a large swatch of the nation in darkness about mid-day on Monday.

Emergency personnel and law enforcement personnel will be preparing. In Geary County where the eclipse is projected at about a 98% rate on Monday, authorities will be participating in a National Weather Service webinar at 11 a.m. Friday.

Emergency Management Director Garry Berges said there will also be discussion during the webinar about the weather on Monday. “There’s concern that there might be a few clouds that could obscure some of the viewing from different parts of Kansas so they’ll go over that, probably just a lot of the questions that some of the emergency managers or some of the emergency responders have, especially with the influx of people coming in.”

Traffic may be heavier than normal on Monday.  Authorities will be watching. “It’s going to be daytime, then all of a sudden it’s going to turn nighttime. “People out on the highway even though they know it’s coming they’re going to maybe stop along the highway. We’re going to see a lot of influx at U.S. 77 people trying to head north and get up toward the Marysville – Highway 36 area toward the Nebraska border. The Sheriff’s Department they’ll be monitoring that. We’ll be monitoring any problems that we might have anyplace.”

The general eclipse hours in Geary County are expected to be from about 11:30 a.m. until 2:30 p.m.