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.