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WORLAND — Washakie County Emergency Management and Worland-Ten Sleep Chamber of Commerce are sponsoring one final eclipse safety and preparedness meeting prior to the total solar eclipse Aug. 21.

Emergency Management Coordinator Jeff Schweighart said he will have a short PowerPoint presentation as well as some handouts. He said part of the meeting will focus on safety, specifically transportation and eye safety.

The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Washakie County Fairgrounds in the community conference room.

Regarding transportation, he said, “With the influx of people, the biggest risk will be driving. They are forecasting that there will be more people in Wyoming from Aug. 20-22 than we’ve ever seen. Quite a bit of focus has been on I-25 and locally we could see congestion in Ten Sleep and Wind River canyons,” Schweighart said.

There will also be discussion on communication and making sure people have alternative ways of communicating with family members if cell service is overwhelmed.

There will also be discussions about the proposed burn regulations for Washakie County with Fire Warden Chris Kocher proposing a ban for Aug. 18-23. The commissioners will act on the proposal at the Aug. 15 meeting.

“At the last public meeting I said I would give them a preparation check list so I’ll have that available,” Schweighart said.

One of the items on the list is making sure you fuel up ahead of time, but Schweighart said many people are thinking only of large motor vehicles, but they also should consider lawn movers, all-terrain and utility-terrain vehicles.

Several locations in the Big Horn Basin and Wyoming fall along the path of totality for the solar eclipse Aug. 21 including Thermopolis in Hot Springs County and Boysen State Park/Boysen Reservoir in Hot Springs/Fremont counties.

Michael Pierce, a UW associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, said, a total solar eclipse is when the moon’s shadow touches the Earth and blankets portions of it in total darkness for a few moments. In essence, the sun, moon and Earth align. A person in the dark part of that shadow, known as the umbra, will see a total eclipse. A person in the light part, called the penumbra, will see a partial eclipse.

Statewide there are 12 counties that fall in the band of total eclipse — Teton, Lincoln, Sublette, Fremont, Hot Springs, Natrona, Carbon, Converse, Albany, Platte, Niobrara and Goshen.

Thermopolis falls in the band of totality, which is the area where the eclipse can be viewed in its entirety. Totality will be at about 11:40 a.m. in Thermopolis, according to Hot Springs County Emergency Management Coordinator Bill Gordon. There will be about 53 seconds of total coverage. Thermopolis will start to see the moon crossing in front of the sun about 10:20 a.m.

The southern part of Grand Teton National Park will be one of the best places in the entire country to view the eclipse, according to the website Eclipse2017.org. On the centerline, the park will experience 2:20 of totality at about 11:35 a.m.

The shadow will then cross Pavillion (at 11:38 a.m.), and Shoshoni and Riverton (at 11:39 a.m.) in Fremont County for about 2:23 before landing squarely on the city of Casper in Natrona County. The centerline will pass right over the intersection of Highway 220 and South Poplar Street in Casper at 11:42 a.m., and provides viewers there with 2:26 in totality.