Demise below investigation at Burning Man as flooding strands hundreds at Nevada competition website

RENO, Nev. — Authorities in Nevada have been investigating a loss of life on the website of the Burning Man competition the place hundreds of attendees remained stranded Saturday evening as flooding from storms swept by way of the Nevada desert.

Organizers closed vehicular entry to the counterculture competition and attendees trudged by way of mud, many barefoot or sporting plastic baggage on their toes. The revelers have been urged to shelter in place and preserve meals, water and different provides.

The Pershing County Sheriff’s Office stated the loss of life occurred throughout the occasion however supplied few particulars because the investigation continued, together with the identification of the deceased particular person or the suspected explanation for loss of life, KNSD-TV reported.

Vehicle gates is not going to open for the rest of the occasion, which started on Aug. 27 and was scheduled to finish Monday, in response to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the Black Rock Desert the place the competition is being held.

More than one-half inch of rain is believed to have fallen on Friday on the competition website, positioned about 110 miles north of Reno, the National Weather Service in Reno stated. At least one other quarter of an inch of rain is predicted Sunday.

The Reno Gazette-Journal reported organizers began rationing ice gross sales and that each one automobile visitors on the sprawling competition grounds had been stopped, leaving transportable bogs unable to be serviced.

Officials haven’t but stated when the doorway is predicted to be opened once more, and it wasn’t instantly identified when celebrants might go away the grounds.

The bulletins got here simply earlier than the culminating second for the annual occasion – when a big picket effigy was to be burned Saturday evening.

Messages left Saturday afternoon by The Associated Press for each the Bureau of Land Management and the Pershing County Sheriff’s Office, the companies that closed the doorway, weren’t instantly returned.

Many individuals performed beer pong, danced and splashed in standing water, the Gazette Journal stated. Mike Jed, a festivalgoer, and fellow campers made a bucket rest room so individuals didn’t need to trudge as typically by way of the mud to succeed in the transportable bogs.