Authorities were astounded when they had to deal with a 50-car pile-up on Interstate 93 in Londonderry on Saturday.
WMUR spoke with dispatchers and authorities that had to respond to the dozens of calls coming in from the crisis.
Betsy Mahon, a Londonderry Fire Department dispatcher, received the first calls.
"The crew that got there first said that there was three vehicles involved," Mahon said. "But they didn't see that further down the road there were many more accidents."
Crews said visibility prevented them from initially gauging the severity of the accident.
Mahon said many 911 callers said they were pinned inside their cars, afraid to get out.
"There's at least 10 cars around me and I still felt cars hitting behind me," said one caller on Mahon's tapes.
At one point, a caller told Mahon that about 100 cars could have been involved.
Authorities said the whiteout conditions caused car after car to slide into the pile.
And before rescuers could arrive, drivers had to take care of one another.
Once on the scene, fire crews had to sift through the wrecks and find the most critically hurt people.
"We started at each end of the incident and then crews met in the middle and triaged patients as they went along," said Londonderry Fire Department Captain Darren O'Brien.
Authorities attributed their response to training for mock disasters and always being prepared for any type of call.
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