One dead at Burning Man as flooding strands thousands – “No one is going to have sympathy for us”
RENO, Nevada, 3 September 2023 (AP) – Authorities in Nevada were investigating a death at the site of the Burning Man festival where thousands of attendees remained stranded Saturday night as flooding from storms swept through the Nevada desert. [Related: Carbon footprint of Burning Man: 27,000 tons of CO2 per year –Des]
Organizers closed vehicular access to the counterculture festival and attendees trudged through mud, many barefoot or wearing plastic bags on their feet. The revelers were urged to shelter in place and conserve food, water and other supplies.
The Pershing County Sheriff’s Office said the death happened during the event but offered few details as the investigation continued, including the identity of the deceased person or the suspected cause of death, KNSD-TV reported.
On their website, organizers encouraged participants to remain calm and suggest that the festival is built to endure conditions like the flooding. They said cellphone trailers were being dropped in several locations Saturday night and that they would be briefly opening up internet overnight. Shuttle buses were also being organized to take attendees to Reno from the nearest town of Gerlach, a walk of about five miles (eight kilometers) from the site.
“Burning Man is a community of people who are prepared to support one another. We have come here knowing this is a place where we bring everything we need to survive,” the organizers said in a statement. “It is because of this that we are all well-prepared for a weather event like this.”
Celebrity DJ Diplo posted a video to Instagram on Saturday evening showing him and comedian Chris Rock riding in the back of a fan’s pickup truck. He said they had walked six miles through the mud before hitching a ride.
“I legit walked the side of the road for hours with my thumb out,” wrote Diplo, whose real name is Thomas Wesley Pentz.
Vehicle gates will not open for the remainder of the event, which began on Aug. 27 and was scheduled to end Monday, according to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the Black Rock Desert where the festival is being held.
More than one-half inch of rain is believed to have fallen on Friday at the festival site, located about 110 miles (177 kilometers) north of Reno, the National Weather Service in Reno said. At least another quarter of an inch of rain is expected Sunday.
The Reno Gazette Journal reported organizers started rationing ice sales and that all vehicle traffic at the sprawling festival grounds had been stopped, leaving portable toilets unable to be serviced.
Officials said late Saturday the entrance to the event remained closed, and it wasn’t immediately known when celebrants could leave the grounds. No driving is allowed except for emergency vehicles and organizers said they didn’t have a time yet when the roads would “be dry enough for RVs or vehicles to navigate safely.” But if weather conditions improve, they were hopeful vehicles could depart by late Monday.
The announcements came just before the culminating moment for the annual event — when a large wooden effigy was to be burned Saturday night.
Messages left Saturday afternoon by The Associated Press for both the Bureau of Land Management and the Pershing County Sheriff’s Office, the agencies that closed the entrance, weren’t immediately returned.
Many people played beer pong, danced and splashed in standing water, the Gazette Journal said. Mike Jed, a festivalgoer, and fellow campers made a bucket toilet so people didn’t have to trudge as often through the mud to reach the portable toilets.
“If it really turns into a disaster, well, no one is going to have sympathy for us,” Jed said. “I mean, it’s Burning Man.”
Death under investigation at Burning Man as flooding strands thousands at Nevada festival site
Burning Man 2023: Cell towers coming; no estimate of when vehicles can resume travel
By Trevor Hughes
2 September 2023
BLACK ROCK CITY, Nevada (Reno Gazette Journal) – Burning Man organizers late Saturday said they’re deploying temporary cell phone towers and wifi across their muddy city as increasingly concerned attendees struggle to alter travel arrangements and connect with worried family members back home.
In a lengthy post to their website, event organizers reiterated that no one is allowed to drive out of the temporary city in the remote desert north of Reno. But they said people can walk the five miles across the muddy desert to the nearest paved road in Gerlach and take a free shuttle bus from there. And they reminded attendees and the public alike that coming to Burning Man has always required preparation and fortitude.
“We have come here knowing this is a place where we bring everything we need to survive,” the organization said. “It is because of this that we are all well-prepared for a weather event like this.”
Indeed, most attendees are taking the muddy conditions in stride, partying in the streets and making mud sculptures.
But organizers have also postponed the burning of the Man effigy that gives the event its name, and some attendees begin leaving after its traditional torching on the Saturday before Labor Day. The bulk of attendees typically leave late Sunday or early Monday in a departure known as Exodus.
Attendees are expected to arrive at Burning Man with everything they need to survive while there, from food and water to shelter. The organization itself sells ice, which is being rationed, and provides porta-potties along with emergency medical care. Organizers on Saturday cautioned attendees to ration their food, water and fuel.
Heavy rains that began Friday afternoon turned the normally rock-hard desert floor into a muddy morass that’s almost impossible to walk on. Burning Man officials said only four-wheel-drive vehicles with adequate tires have proven able to navigate the slick streets.
Among the updates:
- All Burns are postponed.
- There’s no estimate for letting people drive home. Organizers said Monday late in the day would be possible if weather conditions are favorable, but it could also be sooner or later depending on the rain.
- The weather forecast indicates potential rainfall overnight Saturday into early Sunday.
- Event workers are staging vehicles capable of traversing the mud around the city, to help ferry medical evacuees and “other urgent situations” to the nearest paved road.
- Workers are surveying the roads to check their condition. “Please help us keep streets clear by not driving, so we can set the stage to open the city back up again and begin Exodus,” organizers said.
- It is possible to walk to the paved Washoe County Road 34, but plan to walk five miles through the mud. “This isn’t a simple solution, but it is a possible one should you need or want to make the trek,” organizers said. “We do not recommend walking this distance at night. One can become disoriented by the darkness and doing a search and rescue will delay us from helping the city open back up again.”
- Listen to Burning Man Information Radio at 94.5 fm, or online at BMIR.org.
“Get some rest and spend some quality time with your campmates,” organizers said. “We will all get out of this, it will just take time.”
3 p.m. update: Burning Man rationing ice sales; reopening could be days away
Burning Man has closed its entrance and exits gates and told its approximately 73,000 attendees to conserve food, fuel and water as continuing rains make driving off the Black Rock Desert near-impossible.
There was no estimated time for reopening, and thousands of attendees are facing the potential of missing flights, failing to return rental cars or failing to return to work Tuesday. The event is set to officially end Monday but many people begin leaving Saturday night or Sunday.
“I think it’s just a waiting game now,” said Max Spooner, who walked through the city with a mattress strapped to his back. Spooner said his tent got wet on Friday night and he retrieved dry bedding from his car via a long, slippery walk. “Survival mode, here we go.”
The closures and order to remain in shelter come as the event was supposed reach its zenith on Saturday night with the burning of the giant wooden Man effigy towering over the temporary city. All vehicle traffic within the encampment has been halted, including servicing for the thousands of portable toilets that make the event possible. Organizers have also begun rationing ice sales.
Many attendees appeared to remain in good spirits, playing beer pong in the muddy streets or splashing in the standing water. Techno continued echoing around the encampment, and spontaneous dance parties kept breaking out. Walking was almost impossible Saturday morning, but started to improve as the ground began to dry. Then it began raining again.
Given the conditions, which include forecast rain Sunday, it appears unlikely anyone will be permitted to drive out soon. Burning Man officials have not provided a comprehensive update on conditions, departure timing or even the multiple art burns scheduled for Saturday and Sunday. Longtime attendees said they can’t remember a burn with this much rain.
As drizzle began falling Saturday afternoon, Cutter Palacios of Los Angeles hunched on a folding chair outside his camper with an iPad, using a Starlink internet terminal to tell work he wouldn’t make it. A medic and intimacy coordinator, Palacios said he had to tell a colleague he couldn’t commit to a union gig later this week, costing him $1,200 in lost wages.
“I have a wedding this weekend and a flight on Friday,” he said. “My hope is to get out of here Wednesday because I still need to buy a suit.”
Standing outside a bank of portable toilets, Mike Jed and his campmates watched as other attendees ducked inside to dump out bottles of urine. Jed’s camp made a bucket toilet so people didn’t have to walk to the porta-potties as often. Jed and his friends said they’re still enjoying their stay at Burning Man, but hoped there were no health hazards if the toilets begin to overflow. [more]
Burning Man 2023: Cell towers coming; no estimate of when vehicles can resume travel
