First it started as an ingenious (or terrible) Facebook event/meme, then it became an unlikely “generation defining” festival, then a Lil Nas X video, and now… it’s just gone on too long if we’re being honest.
Matty Roberts, creator of the infamous “Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us” event, has already declared the Area 51 meme a joke (this is the world we’re living in, a world in which it has to be declared a joke) but that hasn’t stopped counties in Nevada, where the super-secret military base/alien hub is located, declaring a state of emergency.
Nye County became the second county to declare a state of emergency this week – following Lincoln County (where Area 51 is actually based) last week – as they’re both faced with the two million people that have said they’re attending the Facebook event on September 20.
While it’s very unlikely that two million people, who are most likely just in it for the memes, will attend, the concerns do have some legitimacy to them. While both counties are pretty large, they’re very sparsely populated. Nye County has about 44,000 residents; Lincoln County’s population was 5,345 according to the 2010 census.
This means that both counties have very limited resources and would struggle to support even a fraction of the two million alien hunters naruto running around their towns.
Jon Koenig, chairman of the Nye County Commission, predicts that phone service would go down if there was a large gathering, according to ABC15. Also: “There will probably be no water... or ice available, because everything's going to sell out… There will be no gas left in the gas stations. No food. Nowhere to go potty.” Ew.
Whether enough will turn up for any of that to happen remains to be seen. If you are making the trip, though, obviously go prepared. Or just don’t go.