For many in the Bay Area, Labor Day weekend also means Burning Man weekend. This year however, more than 70,000 festival goers are caught in the mud and sheltering in place after rains made the playa and roads too wet to open for people to leave.
“As of 9am Sunday 9/3, the roads remain too wet and muddy to officially open them for Exodus,” according to the Burning Man traffic account on X, formerly known as Twitter. “There is also an uncertain weather front approaching Black Rock City.”
As a result, friends, family and coworkers may be returning home to the Bay Area later than expected due to weather. Festival organizers shut down the gate and airport Friday night, preventing access to the playa and cancelled all the scheduled burns for the evening as well. The gate and airport are still closed as of Sunday morning.
Burning Man’s official weather forecast for Black Rock City can be found here (DOC). There’s a 70% chance of precipitation today.
A press release from the Pershing County Sheriff’s Office on Saturday, stated that most festival operations have been halted or significantly delayed after a meeting with Burning Man, Bureau of Land Management, and the Pershing County Sheriff’s Office due to “unusual weather conditions on the playa.”
Burning Man has asked people to shelter in place until the ground has dried sufficiently to move safely. However, not everyone is heeding the shelter in place recommendation.
“Right in front of me right now, I can see an RV that’s stuck in the road because they tried to go and they couldn’t,” said San Francisco-based venture capitalist Sheel Mohnot on Sunday morning. He described another car that got stuck, and started a fire. “The woman accelerated and the engine melted,” he added. “Luckily, there were eight fire extinguishers in the nearby cars and they got it out.”
“We are truly, literally and seriously stuck in the mud,” Eric P. Jansen said via email on Saturday. Jansen works for KQED, and said he would not be able to make it in for the next few days. “Access roads have to dry at least a day before anyone can drive on them,” he said. “[It’s a] huge logistics challenge to get so many people out on a two-mile dirt two-lane road with heavy thick alkali mud that even big trucks can’t drive on yet, as it sticks to tires in globs so big that wheels just can’t turn.”
Burning Man, the week-long festival in the Nevada desert, describes itself as “a network of people inspired by the values reflected in the Ten Principles and united in the pursuit of a more creative and connected existence in the world.”
While social media might make it seem like a disaster, Mohnot said yesterday was one of the most fun days he’s had since he began attending the festival in 2010.
“You can’t bike because the roads are not really passable, and because of that you end up talking to a lot more people than you normally do,” he said.
Mohnot, who also held his wedding at Burning Man this year, said some of the Burning Man principles — like radical self-reliance and gifting — are relevant to the current situation. “You share your food, you share your drinks, and it’s been pretty lovely so far.”
Water and portable toilets are the obvious concerns with a self-created community of more than 70,000 people. However, Mohnot said he’s seen a lot of people sharing. Around the corner from his camp is another camp with a sign saying “take as much water as you need.”
So far, the porta-potties have been fine, but “a few more days and it will be messy.”
Mohnot said he’s also seen that people are engineering-minded and able to figure things out — even in the mud there is creative problem-solving happening: “People have done things like, put your shoes on, then a plastic bag, then socks outside your shoes, because socks give you a little bit more traction in this mud,” he said.
While the shelter in place remains in effect, the Pershing County Sheriff’s Office is also investigating a death which occurred during the rain event. According to a press release, the family has been notified and it is under investigation.
Extra resources have been collected from around northern Nevada to help provide people with medical needs and the Pershing County Sheriff’s Office and Bureau of Land Management are attempting to provide additional cell phone services, “so participants can call their loved ones or make travel arrangements if needed.”
Mohnot said he’s seen a lot of concern asking: “‘Is it a Lord of the Flies situation?’ And it absolutely is not,” he said. “Everyone’s collaborating so far.”
He’s cognizant of the fact that it’s still only Sunday and there could be several more days to go, but he said “So far, so good.”
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