Death reported at drenched site of Burning Man festival

A death has been reported at the site of the Burning Man music and arts festival – where thousands of attendees have been forced into “survival mode” as torrential rains turned the Nevada desert into a treacherous muddy pit, authorities said. 

The death happened “during this rain event,” the Pershing County Sheriff’s Office said, according to a KNSD report late Saturday.

But further details, including the person’s identity or the apparent cause, were not immediately revealed. 

“As this death is still under investigation, there is no further information available at this time,” officials said in a statement. 

The counterculture festival, held at the Black Rock Desert, was closed down earlier Saturday, due to the inclement weather, brought on by the remnants of Hurricane Hilary. 

More than 73,000 attendees were ordered to shelter in place, and those still on their way to the festival were told to “turn around and head home” by the federal Bureau of Land Management, the public agency which manages the land where the event is held.

“More rain is expected over the next few days and conditions are not expected to improve enough to allow vehicles to enter the playa,” officials said.

Earlier, organizers had told participants to conserve their food and water, and banned vehicles from roads as Burners, as participants are known, spent the night huddled in mud-streaked tents and RVs.

Photos and videos posted to social media show attendees trudging through the muddy desert, some barefoot, others wearing mud-caked shoes and clothing, and still others walking with bags protecting their shoes. 

Participants are expected to provide their own food, water and shelter for the duration of the event – which ends on Monday with a mass departure known as Exodus. 

“I think it’s just a waiting game now,” attendee Max Spooner, seen walking on the grounds with a mattress strapped to his back, told USA TODAY. “Survival mode, here we go.”

Spooner told the paper he needed to trudge and slip his way to his car and retrieve dry bedding after his tent got wet Friday night.

Temperatures dropped into the low 50s on the grounds of the festival, the outlet reported.

The storm also left many without cell phone service, the newspaper reported.

A Los Angeles-based doctor, who asked to remain anonymous because he is not authorized to speak to the media, told Insider the stranded Burners are at risk for multiple illnesses, including COVID-19. 

They are also likely to suffer from food poisoning and hygiene-related stomach bugs as essential cleaning supplies run low. 

“If it rains again, which is going to prevent people from being able to use their vehicles for another three to four days, people are gonna get stranded there, and there’s gonna be a resource crunch,” the physician reportedly said.

“The port-a-potties are probably going to start overflowing, and that’s gonna mix with the mud and the rain, and it’s going to possibly spread infectious diseases.”

“As the days go on, and people realize that they’re not going to have enough water to do dishes with, there’s going to be a lot more sanitation issues and hygiene issues,” he added.

“And so I think people may start getting a little bit more desperate, and we may start seeing people getting sick if they don’t find a way of getting out of there fast.”

The foiled event drew comparisons to the ill-fated 2017 Fyre Festival in the Bahamas that saw its organizer, Billy McFarland, sentenced to six years in prison after he pleaded guilty to wire fraud and using fake documents to fool investors out of $26 million.

On Saturday, comic Chris Rock and the DJ Diplo walked six miles through the mud to escape the disaster, eventually hitching a ride in the back of a fan’s pickup truck.

With Post Wires