Thousands stranded at Burning Man festival after heavy rains

[riversedge]

Source: cnn




By Maureen Chowdhury
Updated 10:11 a.m. ET, September 3, 2023
What we're covering

Over 70,000 people are stranded in the Nevada desert after heavy rains swamped the annual Burning Man festival, leaving thick, ankle-deep mud.
Attendees were told to shelter in place in the Black Rock Desert and conserve food, water and fuel. Officials have halted all traffic aside from emergency vehicles from entering or leaving the festival.
The remote area in northwest Nevada was hit with 2 to 3 months’ worth of rain in just 24 hours from Friday to Saturday morning. More is anticipated Sunday afternoon.
Authorities are investigating a death "which occurred during this rain event," according to the sheriff's office — though it is unclear if the death was related to the storms.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/nevada-desert-burning-man-weather-rain-09-03-23/index.html

---

As Neal says--you need to be in good shape to hike out.

Link to tweet

?s=20

Link to tweet

?s=20

Link to tweet

?s=20

Link to tweet

?s=20

Link to tweet

?s=20

Link to tweet

?s=20

[EarthFirst]

1. The recovery/cleanup process is going to be astronomical in scale of trash and site remediation...

I imagine far more gear/equipment/trash will be left behind as a result of the difficult site conditions this year than years past.

Good luck to everyone attempting to get out and to the site crews/organizers during the cleanup phase of this festival.

[jeffreyi]

51. To say nothing of the human waste that's bound to be spread around.

That's a lot of people stuck in a tiny area.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

2. I was happy to see Neal Katyal got out safely

Link to tweet

[Blues Heron]

3. plus the rains from that tropical storm had already saturated the top layer of the playa

[Bayard]

4. What a mess!

Running out of food, and overflowing port-a-cans. Sounds like something I'd go to though.

Who knew Neal Katyal was a cool dude in an Hawaiian shirt?

[Liberty Belle]

5. The insurance for this event is going to go sky high.

And who is going to pay to clean all of this up?

[Lucky Luciano]

10. They do have some pretty hardcore efforts to clean up in general.

This presents new challenges of course.

They have big MOOP squads.

MOOP = Matter out of Place

[ForgoTheConsequence]

6. A bunch of neo-hippies and tech bros tearing up the playa.

All for a few days of hedonism. Fuck them. Burning Man has always been an ecological disaster.

[GenXer47]

8. 10

Carbon footprint around 100,000 tons.
Burners, just have the guts to tell 50,000 young couples that the Earth is "too crowded" for them to start a family.
Fuck them, indeed.

[Blues Heron]

12. lol wont somebody think of the playa!

dude its a lake bed

[ForgoTheConsequence]

16. Oh, well then fuck it.

Fire up the generator, drive over some established desert to get there, and party away, brah. I can't wait until the molly runs out and the withdrawals set in.

[Blues Heron]

18. If you dont like it, dont go.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

21. Obviously, I'm not going...

That doesn't mean I won't discuss it or express my disdain for this ecological disaster on a messageboard where we discuss things...




Ship Ahoy!

“We tore out all the bedrooms down below and made a huge ultra lounge,” said Manchester. “We have had famous DJs from around the world play on this boat.”

Keep staning for libertarian billionaires and tech brahs.

Elon Musk’s art car at Burning Man 2022 is built on a Tesla and surrounded by active duty security.

https://youtube.com/shorts/e794IXuDmZ8?si=34Irhg_7w43gN1_e

[Blues Heron]

23. Its so easy to be a hater

[ForgoTheConsequence]

24. I do hate climate change and wealthy elites.

It's easy when you're on the left.

[Blues Heron]

30. live and let live is what I say

they are having a good time, whining about it isnt going to change that. Hatred will eat you up though, its not healthy.

[Iggo]

33. Dude would've sailed right past those lifeboats after the Titanic sank.

World burning captains of industry motherfuckers. Fuck those rich fucks.

[Iggo]

35. It's people. You save the people. Because you don't suck.

What’s next? Biden goes to Maui because good? But not Florida because fuck Florida?

We just had a president who wanted to pick and choose who he saves based on how they voted.

He was a piece of shit.

I’d still pull him out of the water, though.

Because I’m a decent human being.

[Chi67]

7. I'm confused

Was this weather predicted? Or was it a complete surprise? Seems like it should have been canceled if this much rain was predicted. But regardless, hope everyone gets out ok!

[Think. Again.]

9. THIS....

Link to tweet

[ForgoTheConsequence]

13. +1

I saw the videos and it was a bunch of angry shirtless tech bros in lifted trucks going off on the climate protestors. Hardly the hippy love fest it's made out to be. All those generators and campers don't run on hopes and dreams.

[stopdiggin]

17. So - the protesters were right!

And of course should have been allowed to keep thousands trapped in their vehicles in burning desert heat, for an indefinite and uncapped length of time ... Because ...

(they were prescient regarding weather patterns?)

[ForgoTheConsequence]

25. They were already driving to the middle of the desert.

Do some molly and chill brah.

[stopdiggin]

31. and so it was OK that they be

barricaded into their vehicles? Great, man. Real chill.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

49. They could have rode around their unicycles or played the games in their Teslas to kill time.

The environment > libertarians

[stopdiggin]

11. cue the smug self righteous

commentary.

All the people that 'knew all along' - that this was a terrible ecological disaster, and a self indulgent social experiment - through the many years that it has been in existence. (through largely voluntary and cooperative efforts among attendees, organizers and authority)

Sigh.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

14. Cue the defensive libertarian tech bros.

Who just want to do ketamine and tear up public land.

[stopdiggin]

28. not in favor of tearing up public land

but these people (attendees) are for the most part not at all the same crowd (or mindset) - as the dirtbike, dunebuggy, enduro and ATV - uncaring, unheeding, and mostly give-a-sh*t, crap citizens.

(I've been amongst both. And you'll get a lot more understanding, caring, and genuine cooperative effort with the former .. The latter .. ? Well, hopefully they won't be on a 2nd Amend and whiskey toot.)

[ForgoTheConsequence]

29. Do they rent those F350s pullling their campers?

Or does the company that sends them on "retreat" pay for them?

[Lucky Luciano]

44. Yes in fact...lots of rentals

[Hekate]

57. You seem to be uncommonly well informed on their alleged drug habits, I'll give you that

[EarthFirst]

19. It's hasn't been that in a decade...

Once tech began sending development teams on leadership retreats; and IG influencers began flocking to herald their newest adventure for the world to marvel at; Burning Man became an empty shell of its former self.

The beauty of it’s existence set sail long ago.

Call it self-righteous; call it whatever; that’s the reality.

[Warpy]

15. Operative words: dry lake bed

Most years, it will go off just fine. If it rains, you get BurnStock.

Desert mud is nasty stuff, there's a reason people built their houses out unfired bricks and got away with it for thousands of years. Rain water only penetrates to a depth of 18 inches or so, at best, then therels a layer of hardened mud that doesn't tend to soften. So with enough rain, you get 18 inches of sticky, nasty mud. Cars that get stuck in it need to be pulled out quickly because when it dries and hardens, it might take a jackhammer to free those wheels.

I read in the WaPo that a lot of attendees are now barefoot because their shoes are stuck deep in the mud. That means there will be no hiking out for them. Should've worn some back country wafflestompers, people.

I 'm just wondering if there will be a late season superbloom. I don't think that part of Nevada gets them very often, or at all, but it would be worth getting stuck in the mud for a few days to see one.

(A burning figure at the end of summer is an ancient tradition, that old fishwife Tacitus wrote about Celtic people burning a figure made of wicker, which of course he combined with barbaric executions (that's the fishwife part) because his emperors loved to read about how cruel and uncivilized other peoples were. Here in NM, there's Zozobra in Santa Fe, stuffed with people's troubles and burned to ashes, two wedding dresses stuffed into him this year. South of the big city, it's El Kookooee, same thing.(

[riversedge]

22. Thanks. very interesting

[Hekate]

36. TY, Warpy

This is a pretty damn obnoxious thread on the whole

[Attilatheblond]

45. Used to lurk DU for news and hope years ago

Decided to sign up and Twitter went to hell. Noticing that, like Burning Man, DU's kinder days seem to be behind it. So many just looking to grumble and rumble.

[Hekate]

47. I don't know -- there are good days and bad days, and on the latter I take a break...

Also there are plenty of people here that are worthwhile hunting around for.

I was shocked at the venom from some toward Burning Man — in the past I’ve known a few men who went there, and have read reviews of the art and creativity. It wasn’t for me for many reasons, foremost that I don’t handle desert heat well.

Still, my first thought on hearing of the rain this year was flash floods, which are notable killers in deserts. Being stuck there is not a good thing.

See you around.

[electric_blue68]

37. Yeah, quite interesting. I never thought about the ancient bricks being unfired yet...

sturdy! Though I've certainly seen either photos of ruins, or more current dwellings in appropo areas.

Ohhh, boy: Desert Mud transformed into "Cement".
Yikes when unwanted!

[Retrograde]

41. The California mission buildings were made of adobe

unfired clay mixed with straw or grass and dried in the sun. It worked well as long as it was protected by those fired clay tile roofs. After the Mexican government seized and secularized the mission buildings after independence, a lot of the tiles were used for other things (the Burlingame train station's roof has some of them) the unprotected walls literally melted - a little during each rainy season until after several decades they reverted to dirt. What you see these days are largely reconstructions from the early 1900s.

Closer to home, my garden soil is mostly adobe. Unamended, it's nearly impossible to dig by hand in the summer. In the winter when it rains, it's thick and clings to everything - I'm usually about 2" taller after working there in winter thanks to all the mud on my shoes. I imagine the clay at Burning Man is as bad if not worse, given the time all those little clay particles had to accumulate in the dry lake bed.

[electric_blue68]

46. Oh, I didn't realize that that was what it was called...

I mean, I know the term adobe buildings, and yeah, it's made of compacted natural stuff.

Sure, I've seen photos of the Mission buildings.

But, heh, w/o the protective fired clay roof tiles - yikes!

Ty for info

[tenderfoot]

20. I just stopped in to read the comments from people that have never been

[Torchlight]

27. Not my thing, to each their own

Along with 40 million other Americans, I play golf, and in doing so, waste water, energy, and the environment. Very few eyes lack motes, especially mine.

[Iggo]

32. Don't tell Forgo.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

48. If I hurt your feelings by caring about the environment you can always take some molly.

I'm sure that serotonin dump will feel great.

[Iggo]

50. You're mistaking laughing my ass off for hurt feelings.

Weird.

[Warpy]

42. "Golf, which is a good walk spoiled"--apocryphal

I wanted to go to the festival but I always failed to have time, funds, and health all at the same time.

I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have been my thing, big crowds usually aren't, but I did want to see it.

I will be kicking a full bucket eventually. I'm afraid most of us my age will.

The golf quote: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/05/28/golf-good-walk/

[Demobrat]

34. All good until food and water run low

and burning man spirit devolves into lord of the flies. Hope it doesn’t get too bad.

[tinrobot]

40. Burners are supposed to bring enough food for a week.

Those that do might start running out after tomorrow, but most bring more than they need.

There's also other sources of food. Many of the installments/attractions are food based - Black Rock Bakery, Dust City Diner, French Quarter, etc.

Generally, the participants should be OK from a food standpoint.

The bigger risk is someone getting injured with no transportation to a hospital.

[Demobrat]

43. They are letting emergency vehicles in, no?

[jgmiller]

38. I know people who have gone in the past

The massive amount of rain and mud is new yes but I think this is probably overblown and now the media is getting into the act.

Every year they have massive dust storms, like they did this year. To me that seems like more of a health danger than mud and yet they survive. As for running out of food and water these people planned on being there until Monday so they should I would assume they would have brought in enough food and water for that length of time. Also if it's raining a lot I'm sure plenty of smart people there are now capturing the rain water to drink.

I would think the most dangerous part of this would be that if there are medical emergencies it would be difficult to get to those people.

[NewHendoLib]

39. Our neighbor is there - she's gone several times. She absolutely loves it.

Not at all my wife or my thing - we are more go let lost in the woods types - don't like crowds (heck, even the apple festival in our town on Main Street sent us running for our quiet backyard corner!)

Hoping those that are there get through it safely. To each their own indeed.

[Martin68]

52. Seems like some have a lot of anger that people go to the desert and try something different for a

few days. Reminds me of my parent's reaction to the hippies and the Summer of Love. I suggest they relax little and stop clenching their teeth. There are much more deserving things to hate, if that's what you want to do.

[Solly Mack]

53. I hope all a safe return.

Sad about the death.

[Snooper9]

54. well, should be okay in the morning

Campers, F250 trucks, Fancy heels inside,,,

blah,

LOL

[LudwigPastorius]

55. Looks fun...

[ripcord]

56. This is going to affect the playa for years

We launch rockets at a dry lake bed in SoCal and there is no driving while it is wet per BLM because those ruts won't be gone for years. I know some people say it is just a dry lake bed but it is part of the desert ecosystem.

[betsuni]

58. All of those people looked in excellent health, strong white American teeth, prosperous.

Not like they're refugees living in mud for years. So what.

[Snooper9]

60. and they had no f's given

And I have zero f's as well

[LetMyPeopleVote]

59. Neal Katya talks about what he learned at Burning Man and why he went in the first place.

Link to tweet