Western Kentucky University is planning for its football stadium to be filled with as many as 20,000 school-age children for the solar eclipse on August 21.
WKU has invited area school districts to share the globally anticipated event that will cause the day to go dark for about one minute at 1:27 in the afternoon in Bowling Green.
WKU Emergency Manager David Oliver says the university is experienced at handling crowds that can reach 24,000 for a football game.
“We have evolved into developing comprehensive event plans for anything of this size, anything out of what I could call out of the norm or large scale," Oliver said. "We develop a plan with all of our response partners, including police, fire, EMS.”
Oliver says those hosting the event at the WKU football stadium will be prepared for the possibility of high midday heat and humidity.
WKU will set up a combined emergency operations center at the stadium for the eclipse, in collaboration with Warren County first responders.
