Humboldt County sheriff's dispatchers called in virtually every medical, law enforcement and fire worker in the sparsely populated area after drivers reported "near-apocalyptic" conditions Monday evening on I-80 at Winnemucca, according to officials at Humboldt General Hospital there. A mine rescue crew also assisted, and a charter bus was used to transport victims who were uninjured.
"It was kind of surreal," said Jared Oscarson, captain of clinical services at the hospital, describing a curtain of blowing dirt that at times hid the crash scene from rescuers' sight. "There was kind of just chaos and destruction everywhere."
The pileup shut down the east-west corridor, a major trucking route, into Tuesday as crews worked to clear the scene of wrecked vehicles and debris.
