Gov. Kathy Hochul said New York is ready for the solar eclipse on Monday, April 8. She and other leaders want to make sure residents are ready, too.

Plattsburgh, Rochester and Buffalo will be right in the path of total coverage as the eclipse progresses. The Capital Region will be in more than 95% totality.

Hochul and other leaders said they want to make sure everyone is wearing legitimate glasses to prevent eye damage. They also said they are treating this as a statewide event and preparing security accordingly.

“We have been preparing for this for many, many, many months and getting people excited,” said Hochul “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 uh the trajectory of this.”

“It’ll take about 2.5 hours for it to move through the event in our state, but it will be just a small portion of time when we are in a total eclipse,” said Kathryn Garcia, the New York State Director of Operations. “The last time it happened in the state of New York was 1925, and it is not going to happen again until 2079.”

NewsChannel 13 will have complete coverage of the eclipse. Our special, “The Darkest Hour,” airs on April 4 at 7 p.m. on NewsChannel 13 and 10 p.m. on My4.

We will also have full coverage of the eclipse on Monday, April 8, starting at 2 p.m. on NewsChannel 13.

You can read all about the eclipse here.