The Latest: Car strikes two women watching eclipse, one dies
The Latest: Car strikes two women watching eclipse, one dies
This photo shows a partial eclipse of the sun from downtown Minneapolis, Monday, Aug. 21, 2017. (Brian Peterson/Starlet Tribune via AP)
Manuel Balce Ceneta
Pence says Confederate statues are state, local decision
Vice President Mike Pence, with students from Cornerstone Schools, sees the solar eclipse, Monday, Aug. 21, 2017, at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
The Latest: Car strikes two women watching eclipse, one dies
A crowd gathers in front of the Hollywood sign at the Griffith Observatory to see the solar eclipse in Los Angeles on Monday, Aug. 21, 2017. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
‘A primal practice’: Americans dazzled by solar eclipse
Ashley Ann Sander hawks solar eclipse glasses on the side of the road to tourists approaching town for $Ten a pair Sunday, Aug. 20, 2017, near Clayton, Ga., a city in the path of totality in North Georgia. (Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)
The Latest: Car strikes two women watching eclipse, one dies
Julian Ledger, of Los Angeles, photographs the solar eclipse while his wifey Shayde Ledger and friend Annemarie Penny, right dance during totality at the Albany Regional Airport in Albany, Ore., Monday, Aug. 21, 2017. (Mark Ylen/Albany Democrat-Herald via AP)
The Latest: Car strikes two women watching eclipse, one dies
This photo shows the beginning of a solar eclipse as seen from Nashville, Tenn., Monday, Aug. 21, 2017. (Andrew Nelles/The Tennessean via AP)
The Latest: Car strikes two women watching eclipse, one dies
Students sitting on the steps of the Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library view the eclipse at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Ala., Monday, Aug. 21, 2017. Viewers in Tuscaloosa witnessed approximately a ninety percent eclipse at 1:30 p.m. under mostly clear skies. (Gary Cosby Jr./The Tuscaloosa News via AP)
The Latest: Car strikes two women watching eclipse, one dies
Charleston Heyward, 9, right, Elliott Graham, 11, and Braylon Graham, 8, wear their homemade face masks with their eclipse glasses before they inject Joseph P. Riley Jr. park in Charleston S.C on Monday, Aug. 21, 2017. (Michael Pronzato/The Post And Courier via AP)
The Latest: Car strikes two women watching eclipse, one dies
Jamal Ghani, 48, left, of Flint, shares a single pair of protective glasses with Sumaya Tabbah, 17, of Flushing, while watching the solar eclipse at Mott Community College on Monday, Aug. 21, 2017, in Flint, Mich. (Terray Sylvester/The Flint Journal, MLive.com via AP)
Austin Anthony/Daily News
The Latest: Car strikes two women watching eclipse, one dies
From left, Jonathan Billing, Mary Ludwig, and her sister Emily Ludwig, all of La Crescent, Minn., observe during an eclipse on Monday, Aug. 21, 2017, at Orchardale Farm in Cerulean, Ky. (Austin Anthony/Daily News via AP)
Posted: Tuesday, August 22, two thousand seventeen Two:20 am | Updated: Two:46 am, Tue Aug 22, 2017.
The Latest on the total solar eclipse crossing the U.S., from Oregon to South Carolina (all times EDT):
Authorities say two women watching the eclipse while standing on a sidewalk in Kentucky were struck by a car, and one has died.
State Police Trooper Jody Sims says the car crossed the center line and hit a utility pole and the pedestrians Monday in Hyden, about one hundred twenty miles (190 kilometers) southeast of Lexington.
Sims says 23-year-old Mackenzie P. Hays was pronounced dead, and 41-year-old Rhonda Belcher was flown to the University of Kentucky Hospital in Lexington. Thirty-eight-year-old motorist Alyssa Noble was taken to a medical center. The condition of Wooton and Noble weren’t instantly known.
State Police Capt. Jennifer Sandlin confirmed the pedestrians were viewing the partial eclipse. Police didn’t say what caused the crash.
— AP writer John Raby
Scientists, journalists and contest winners were among about one hundred people who loved a closer look at the eclipse, thanks to a special eclipse-chasing charter flight by Alaska Airlines.
The jet flew for almost three hours over the Pacific Ocean to intercept the eclipse, permitting passengers to observe total blockage of the sun from their seats.
Excitement on the plane built as Fresh York Hayden Planetarium instructor Joe Rao counted down the final seconds before the moon blacked out the sun.
Rao helped the airline figure out the logistics of the flight. It was his 12th solar eclipse.
Twenty-six-year-old passenger Jasmine Shepherd, of Charlotte, North Carolina, won a seat on the flight through a social media contest. She says the eclipse was hard to process, but she wants to see it again.
— AP writer Rachel La Corte
Patrick Schueck says his 10-year-old twin daughters were not very interested in watching the eclipse — until they spotted it.
He says Ava and Hayden weren’t excited about railing with the family from Little Rock, Arkansas, to Alto Pass, Illinois, the night before to view the eclipse atop a mountain featuring a 100-foot-tall cross.
Even after arriving at Bald Knob Cross of Peace, one of them sat looking at her iPhone.
Schueck says the chicks’ indifference switched to astonishment during the eclipse. He says it was "as if the sun set and rose within about three minutes."
Schueck says viewing the eclipse was "one of the most moving practices" he’s had, and he’s glad the family got to witness it.
He says the practice is one "they’ll reminisce for the rest of their lives."
— AP writer Caryn Rousseau
This story has been corrected to display the cross is about one hundred feet tall, not 1,000 feet.
Some cruise passengers have observed the solar eclipse as Bonnie Tyler sang her hit, "Total Eclipse of the Heart."
The Welsh singer was backed on the ballad by Joe Jonas’ band, DNCE, during a Monday afternoon spectacle in an outdoor theater on Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas.
"Total Eclipse Cruise" left from Florida on Sunday, sailing through the Caribbean toward St. Maarten on Monday, when the moon passed in front of the sun. A total eclipse was viewable in a narrow band across the sea.
"Total Eclipse of the Heart" topped the Billboard charts for four weeks in 1983. Spotify says flows of the song have enlargened by Two,859 percent in the U.S. and eight hundred twenty seven percent worldwide during the past two weeks.
— AP writer David Fischer
The crickets and other animals grew noisy as it got darker at the Nashville zoo, but when the sun was totally blotted out, it was the humans who drowned out the animals, clapping, "oohing" and "aahing" for more than the almost two minutes the total eclipse lasted.
And then once the light returned, the showcase began.
The two juvenile giraffes, Mazi, a 6-month-old, and Nasha, a 3-year-old, raced in circles as the people stared. About twenty feet away, some of the rhinos were doing their best imitation of running after heading toward their pens when it got dark.
Teresa Morehead, of Indianapolis, says she was astonished to see the animals running. She says the rhinos were more confused than anything.
— AP science writer Seth Borenstein
John Hays drove up from Bishop, California, for the total eclipse in Salem, Oregon, and says the practice will stay with him forever.
It was his 2nd eclipse. He experienced one in Guatemala about twenty seven years ago. He witnessed Monday’s eclipse from a deck overlooking the Willamette Valley and the foothills of the Coastal Range.
Hays says he liked it because he had a clear view across the entire landscape.
He says he will never leave behind that "it was Ten:30 and it became night." He says "just watching the light become silvery, and the temperature drop, that was also a pretty amazing thing."
— AP writer Andrew Selsky
The very first total solar eclipse to sweep the U.S. coast to coast in almost a century has come to an end in South Carolina.
Americans across the land observed in wonder Monday as the moon blocked the sun, turning daylight into twilight.
Totality — when the sun is entirely obscured by the moon — lasted just two minutes or so in each location along the narrow corridor spreading all the way across the U.S., from Oregon to Charleston, South Carolina. It took about ninety minutes for total blockage to cross the country.
Two-hundred million people live within a day’s drive of Monday’s path of totality. So towns and parks along the eclipse’s main haul have welcomed monumental crowds. The last coast-to-coast eclipse was in 1918.
Northwest cities not fairly in the path of totality also loved the solar eclipse.
Boise is not in totality. But birds quieted down shortly when 99.Five percent of sun was blocked. And some neighborhoods erupted into applause and hooting as residents cheered the demonstrate from their yards.
In Portland, hundreds gathered at Tom McCall Waterfront Park to see the uncommon celestial event. Some office workers stood on rooftops, and petite crowds gathered on the sidewalks, looking skyward. Some voiced surprise that even a sliver of sun can prevent a city from falling into darkness.
Within minutes, traffic resumed on what had been eerily quiet downtown streets.
— AP writers Rebecca Boone and Steven DuBois
After staying behind the clouds, the sun in Nashville moved into the clear to blessed staring crowds at the Nashville Zoo.
Louisiana State University chemical engineering major Tiffany Lastinger told her physics major friend, "Oh my God, Katie, look."
The sun resembled a Pac-Man character.
Her friend, Katherine M. Nugent, studies astrophysics but was watching a group of rhinos and giraffes. The two plan to inject their observations in the iNaturalist app.
Nugent says it’s "indeed cool to see how different animals react."
— AP science writer Seth Borenstein
The very first total solar eclipse to sweep the U.S. coast to coast in almost a century has begun in Oregon.
Americans across the land are watching in wonder through telescopes, cameras and protective glasses Monday as the moon blots out the sun and turns daylight into twilight.
Totality — when the sun is entirely obscured by the moon — will last two minutes or so in each location along the narrow corridor spreading from Oregon to South Carolina.
Two-hundred million people live within a day’s drive of Monday’s path of totality, and it will take about ninety minutes for totality to cross the country.
Towns and parks along the eclipse’s main haul have welcomed monumental crowds for what promises to be the most observed, studied and photographed eclipse in history.
Les and Mary Anderson will mark their 13th eclipse with hundreds of fledgling astronomers who have descended on Casper, Wyoming.
The duo from San Diego is attending the Astrocon conference, which is organized by the Astronomical League.
The Andersons met on a photography field tour at Yosemite National Park and went to Mexico for an eclipse in 1991, the year before they got married.
In Casper, they joined a friend they met during an eclipse in Aruba in 1998.
Mike O’Leary was ready Monday with a camera outfitted with a homemade eclipse filter. He says witnessing an eclipse is "like nothing else you will ever see or do."
— AP videographer Peter Banda
This story has been corrected to display the conference is Astrocon, not Astroncon.
Both of South Carolina’s political parties are attempting to capitalize on the eclipse in fundraising campaigns.
In an email titled "’Eclipse’ the Democrats!" the South Carolina Republican Party on Monday asked donors to contribute $20.Legitimate toward the party’s efforts to "keep Democrats TOTALLY in the dark" in next year’s elections. Republicans now hold all statewide elected offices and control both chambers of South Carolina’s Legislature.
In a message of their own, the state’s Democratic Party sent supporters links to latest political articles in several outlets reminding them of work ahead of the party.
The party told supporters, "Nobody go blind today, there’s too much work to do for Democrats all across the state!"
— AP writer Meg Kinnard
Eclipse viewers, many of them slathered with sunscreen, are streaming into the noisy Nashville Zoo hours early to see both the eclipse and animals’ weird reactions to it.
Zoo spokesman Jim Bartoo says people were camping out at the zoo entrance at six a.m., three hours before the gates opened and seven-and-a-half hours before totality.
Paulette Simmons of Nashville came to the zoo after a doctor’s appointment, telling she determined on the location because she dreamed to see how the animals reacted.
The flamingo lagoon is one of the most popular locales, with the birds expected to roost and get noisy when the sun darkens.
Ninety minutes after the zoo opened, the pathways were clogged with people.
— AP science writer Seth Borenstein
Baseball fans in more than a half-dozen cities are heading to ballparks to witness the solar eclipse as teams look to cash in with game-day viewing parties.
Minor league teams from Oregon to South Carolina have scheduled games Monday to coincide with the total eclipse as it streaks across the United States.
In Nebraska, the Lincoln Saltdogs will wear special eclipse jerseys and stop their game to witness the utter eclipse at 1:02 p.m. The team says it has sold tickets to buyers from as far away as the United Kingdom and Germany.
Other teams hosting events include the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes, Idaho Falls Chukars, Bowling Green Hot Rods, Nashville Sounds, Greenville Drive, Columbia Fireflies and Charleston RiverDogs.
No big league games are scheduled to coincide with the eclipse.
— AP writer Grant Schulte
Forecasters say it looks like a big chunk of the nation on the path of the total eclipse will get clear viewing for the sky demonstrate.
National Weather Service meteorologist Patrick Burke says about seventy percent of the area on the 70-mile path spreading from Oregon to South Carolina is likely to have clear skies when the moon moves in front of the sun.
Burke says it looks good for the Pacific Northwest, the Northern Rockies, Tennessee, Kentucky, and into western South Carolina.
The hardest areas are coastal South Carolina, eastern Nebraska, north and central Missouri and Illinois. Burke says those areas will have thick clouds and have to dodge pop-up thunderstorms.
Astronomers say clouds and rainstorm make it difficult to see the classic pic of the blotted out sun.
— AP science writer Seth Borenstein
With just hours to go before a total solar eclipse would reach the Oregon coast, people were streaming into the fairgrounds in Salem, Oregon, to view the spectacle Monday morning.
The sound of Taiko drummers packed the air during a pre-eclipse display at the fairgrounds. Less than fifty miles north in Portland, Oregon, eclipse experts, contest winners, an astronaut and members of the media were boarding an Alaska Airlines charter flight to fly two hours southwest in to intercept the eclipse about ten a.m. PDT.
Meantime, thousands of eclipse tourists were gathered in the little town of Weiser, Idaho. Among them was Agnese Zalcmane, who traveled to the western United States from Latvia so she could be in the zone when the moon’s shadow downright covers the sun.
— AP writer Gillian Flaccus
Americans with telescopes, cameras and protective glasses are staking out viewing catches sight of to witness the moon blot out the midday sun Monday.
It promises to be the most observed and photographed eclipse in history. The main haul will spread along a narrow corridor from Oregon to South Carolina. Millions of eclipse watchers are expected to peer skyward, and they’re hoping for clear weather.
It will be the very first total solar eclipse to sweep coast-to-coast across the U.S. in ninety nine years.
Copyright two thousand seventeen The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
