In the 1989 movie “Field of Dreams,” Kevin Costner is told, “If you build it, they will come.”
After a Facebook post first built the momentum, more than 30,000 may now be coming to Lincoln County for the Storm Area 51 event Sept. 20-22 in Rachel and at the Alien Research Center near Crystal Springs.
If the masses do arrive as predicted, resources of all kinds in the county will be depleted quickly, in particular food, bottled water and gasoline.
Speaking at a public meeting Aug. 22 at Pahranagat Valley High School’s multi-purpose room, Derek Bowman explained what local residents need to do in advance of the crowds.
“Do this in order that we then don’t contribute to problems that will arise,” he said. “There are a number of things that should be done or already have been done. We need, therefore, to be as self-sufficient as possible.”
He stressed that local residents should stock up with food for at least a week, enough bottled water for several days and adequate fuel supplies. “Have at least one gallon of water per person, per day.”
He said Sinclair gas has two trucks scheduled daily and Green Valley Grocery at Ash Springs has one truck to make daily fuel deliveries.
Bowman said locals need to have extra fuel on hand, maybe one or two extra five-gallon containers. “Make sure your tanks are full at the beginning of the week and top off on Wednesday. Watch the gas lines. If you don’t have to travel, don’t.”
Dave Luttrell, Lincoln County Power District manager, said the system is unlikely to be overloaded as any outage “would only be of a local nature and power would not be cut off for the entire county. We’ll have people on standby in case of an outage occurring.”
At a previous commission meeting, Connie West at the Little A’Le’Inn said visitors will not be able to tap into the local power grid. “They will have to use their own generators.”
On a related point regarding power outages, Robin Simmers, manager of the Pahranagat Valley Federal Credit Union, advised people to have an adequate stock of cash on hand. “If the ATM machines are not working, you’ll need to be prepared.”
