Storm Area 51 "Raid" Barely Draws 100 People To "See Them Aliens"

BYKarlton Jahmal3.0K Views
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Margaret Lemay (L) and Karen Peterson of Wisconsin gather at a 'Storm Area 51' spinoff event on September 20, 2019 in Rachel, Nevada. The event is a spinoff from the original 'Storm Area 51' Facebook event which jokingly encouraged participants to storm the famously secretive Area 51 military base in order to 'see them aliens'. Two tiny desert towns not far from from the once-secret Area 51 are hosting related events this weekend. The military has warned attendees not to approach the protected Area 51 military installation.
Major fail.

The "Storm Area 51" raid didn't really go according to plan. It started as a joke event on Facebook and evolved into a nationwide experience. The event, which was canceled after the US Government got involved, stated, "We will all meet up at the Area 51 Alien Center tourist attraction and coordinate our entry. If we Naruto run, we can move faster than their bullets. Let's see them aliens." The post was obviously a farce, but it gained national attention after garnering roughly 2 million replies from Facebook users. The memes flooded in, but they died out in the usual meme fashion after a few weeks. Still, authorities were worried thousands of people would show up to the desert. It was more like 100.

“It’s a relief that it’s not as bad as we thought it was going to be,”  Lincoln County Sheriff Kerry Lee told USA TODAY. “My nightmare was the 30,000 people,” Lee said. “I truly thought we were going to have bumper to bumper.” Rachel Nevada, the closet town to Area 51, has roughly 50 residents. The tiny town was not prepared to take on thousands of Naruto running alien enthusiasts, and even the 100 that did show up was already double Rachel's population. 


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