Burning Man festival in chaos as one dies & 73,000 told to shelter in place after rain storms cause flooded mudbath
A FESTIVALGOER has died as more than 70,000 are stranded at Burning Man following torrential rain.
Organizers have closed road access to and from the Nevada site due to deep mud.
Attendees have been advised to conserve their water and food.
The festival, held in a usually dry desert, was hit with more than half an inch of rain on Friday.
The National Weather Service in Reno, about 110 miles away from the site, stated that at least another quarter of an inch of rain is expected to fall on Sunday.
The Pershing County Sheriff’s Office released a statement and said they are “currently investigating a death which occurred during this rain event.”
Saturday’s statement added that the person’s family had been notified but did not give any further information or reveal the cause of death.
The festival is held in Black Rock Desert, which is created and disbanded each year just for the event.
Organizers have not revealed when people will be allowed to leave but said the mud was made worse by some attendees that attempted to drive out.
Many festivalgoers went around the site on Saturday and Sunday in plastic bags or barefoot.
Some people however had suffered with hypothermia, according to the Daily Mail.
The road closure has even taken away some basic amenities like toilets, as vehicles could not come to the site to empty and clean them.
Trevor Hughes, a USA Today reporter, was at the festival and told the BBC about the situation.
Hughes said: “There was a person parked next to me who tried to leave and she got six inches before giving up digging her wheels into the mud.
“[The ground] is basically this alkali dust that when dry, is hard as concrete but you get a little rain and it turns into this slippery, muddy mess.
“The water has nowhere to go, it can’t soak in and it can’t run off. So it just sits there.”
Despite over 73,000 attendees still being stuck, Chris Rock, and DJ Diplo managed to leave.
In a post uploaded to X, formally known as Twitter, Diplo shared a video of Chris Rock and himself in the back of a pickup truck.
The post said: “Just walked 5 miles in the mud out of burning man with chris rock and a fan picked us up.”