A huge dust storm has caused a 23-car pileup along with several other crashes and injured two people on an important highway.
Motorists were driving almost completely blind along Highway 285 near Roswell, New Mexico, on Monday as the sky turned orange.
Roswell is famous for a UFO conspiracy theory and had a top-secret government facility nearby some claim was for extra-terrestrial research.
High winds whipped the sand across the road in ferocious fashion, and videos posted online showed only several feet of visibility.
Ambulances and local police rushed to Carrol and Orchard Park, just south of Midway between Roswell and Artesia, after the crashes were reported.
Two people were badly hurt in the crashes and rushed to Eastern New Mexico Medical Center in Roswell.
Five semi-trucks and 18 other vehicles were towed to the Chaves County Sheriff’s Office after being involved in the biggest pileup.
Dexter Fire and Rescue chief Justin Powell said roads through the area were closed and urged everyone to stay indoors.
‘Highway 285 is still closed between Roswell and Artesia. Zero visibility in spots. State road 2 is also very bad with low and NO visibility,’ he wrote online.
‘Multiple vehicle accidents all around the area. If you do not need to be driving, please do not do so. Stay put!
‘Warnings have all been extended into the evening time now. Wind is also expected to blow next couple of days.
‘This is spring time in the desert NM, so this is expected at times. Just please use caution and common sense.
‘So many emergency agencies are out working all these accidents. At times every available ambulance has been taking in multiple patients at a time.
‘So please be safe, stay out if you can until winds die down and visibility gets better.’
Satellite images showed plumes of brown dust across huge areas of the region.
Roswell’s alien conspiracy dates to the 1947 crash of a top-secret US Army experimental weather balloon designed to detect Soviet missile launches.
The balloon debris included a large metal disc, which started the claim that it was a UFO and that balloon was a cover-up.
This was helped by a poorly worded army statement that it was in possession of a ‘flying disc’, which set off a frenzy before it was retracted hours later.