With the ‘Storm Area 51’ event just weeks away, a rural county in Nevada is preparing for the worst. Ahead of the Facebook-organized plot to “see them aliens,” the county has already declared a state of emergency.

Officials in Lincoln County, Nevada have agreed to pre-sign an emergency declaration in preparation for the now notorious event, scheduled for late September, which could draw a horde of visitors – the Facebook event page has already amassed hundreds of thousands of RSVPs. The county said it simply does not know what to expect.

“We passed this with the caveat that this may or may not happen,” said Kevin Phillips, a county official. “We're just trying to do the best we can to prepare for something we know not of.”

We have no pickin' idea what we're going to face – if anything.

UFO buffs looking to visit should not take the emergency as a message to keep away, however, as the same officials in Lincoln recently approved two permits for Area 51-themed music festivals in the county in the coming months. The emergency provision merely allows the county to request resources from Nevada’s state government in the event that thousands do show up.

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The tongue-in-cheek Facebook event page was created in June by California resident Matty Roberts and soon took on a life of its own, prompting over 2 million to mark the date of September 20 on their calendars. The page calls on attendees to rush the Area 51 facility on foot, and insists “They can’t stop all of us,” and that “we can move faster than their bullets.”

Area 51 is the common name given to a highly classified military installation in the Nevada Test and Training Range, but the secrecy surrounding the base has secured its place in alien and UFO folklore, with many theorizing it houses alien technology.

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The US military caught wind of the event in July, and issued a dire warning to anyone hoping to join in the raid, ominously stating “The US Air Force always stands ready to protect America and its assets.”

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