A solar eclipse on April 8 will attract hundreds of thousands of visitors to U.S. towns and cities named by experts as the best places to see the moon completely block the sun.
In Oklahoma, the National Guard has already announced its deployment to support local agencies and residents, with the state falling in the path of totality where the moon will block out the sun.
However, a local report that an "elite chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear unit" would be monitoring the event has led to a wave of suspicious social media posts.
The Claim
A TikTok video posted by user wffnews on March 15 which has since been viewed more than 3.2 million times shows a local newspaper report mentioning emergency preparations in Oklahoma for the eclipse.
The report noted a deployment of "22 members of an elite Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear unit."
The TikTok presenter said: "This is getting wild. The National Guard is going to be here now for the solar eclipse. This article today was released in an Oklahoma newspaper saying that they will have guardsmen present in McCurtain County for the solar eclipse.
"But things get much weirder. The 22 members of an elite chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear unit will be housed in Broken Bow, in addition to 110 to 150 Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers.
"They're also urging residents to stock up with one to two weeks of food in advance of the event and to have full fuel tanks. They're also saying that it's likely that communication facilities could be overloaded, possibly making it difficult to make cell phone calls. Similar warnings are going out in different states, including Noblesville Fire Department in Texas."
Other social media posts on X, formerly Twitter, referred to the same newspaper article and expressed alarm. "Something really odd about this Eclipse," wrote X user @TruthPole, on March 15, 2024, in a post viewed 77,000 times. "Stay Prepared."
A YouTube video on the channel Off Grid With Doug and Stacy, posted on March 15, 2024, and viewed more than 200,000 times, also mentioned the article. The presenter, Doug, said: "I do not remember biological scientists and, and, uh you know, radioactive scientists and all this hype, over this stuff, right?"
The Facts
The newspaper article used in the viral videos first appeared in the McCurtain Gazette, local officials told Newsweek.
The paper serves Oklahoma's McCurtain County, the location of the city of Idabel, which NASA has predicted will be among the 13 best spots in the U.S. to see the total eclipse.
The Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) unit mentioned by the Gazette is the 63rd Civil Support Team (CST), part of the Oklahoma National Guard.
The unit is trained to provide expert support in the event of chemical, biological, nuclear, radiological, and high-yield explosive-related emergencies.
But such events are not being anticipated on the day of the eclipse, April 8, and the unit will largely be there to support residents, other agencies and visitors.
Lt. Col. LeeAnn Tumblson, public affairs officer with the Oklahoma National Guard, told Newsweek that local officials in Idabel—population 7,000—had requested the unit's help out of an "abundance of caution" to handle the expected 100,000 visitors.
"While they're trained in the chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear issues, they can identify and test chemicals or substances to what they are, most of their day-to-day job is helping local law enforcement, like testing mysterious powder like fentanyl," Tumblson said.
"They have a wide range of capabilities. They can do search and rescue. They have a command and control suite, communications. So they're often used anytime there's going to be a large crowd of people.
"And in this case, because it's such a tiny town and they don't know how to deal with 100,000 people just kind of showing up one day, they've asked local law enforcement, highway patrolmen, and our CST team to be part of this mission, just to make sure, in an abundance of caution, to make sure everybody's safe and nothing happens.
She added: "The CST is just really a very highly-trained unit that can respond to various amount of things dealing with large crowds."
The unit's commander, Lt. Col. Jabonn Flurry, said in a statement released on March 18: "This influx of visitors has the potential to overtax local resources and thanks to the training and experience our Guardsmen have working alongside local agencies all across Oklahoma, the CST is uniquely qualified to support our fellow Oklahomans."
Federal funding for the first CSTs was approved by Congress in 1998, to assist U.S. authorities in responding to incidents involving WMD or catastrophic terrorism, including "the use of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or high-yield explosive weapons and agents." There are now 57 national teams.
The Oklahoma National Guard says that despite the importance of the CST, its public appearance is not unusual. It said it participated in 42 multi-agency training events last year and provided support for the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon and home football games for the Oklahoma State Cowboys and Oklahoma Sooners.
Residents have been advised to stock up on food and fuel, as the Gazette pointed out, in anticipation of stores being hit by a surge in demand when eclipse-gazers arrive.
That advice was issued by the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management.
Preparations for the solar eclipse have led to a wave of misleading and baseless claims.
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones claimed that the government was planning to "hijack" the event, while others falsely suggested it could lead to earthquakes and major thunderstorms.
The Ruling
Needs Context.
The elite chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear unit is the 63rd Civil Support Team, part of the Oklahoma National Guard.
The unit, which is trained to assist with a range of complex emergency threats and often helps manage large crowds, will be deployed on April 8 in Oklahoma.
Authorities say it will primarily assist with the tens of thousands of visitors expected to arrive in some of Oklahoma's smallest towns and cities to watch the eclipse.
FACT CHECK BY Newsweek's Fact Check team
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.
