Burning Man death under investigation as flooding ravages thousands at festival site in Nevada

Nevada authorities were investigating a death at the site of the Burning Man festival, where thousands of attendees were stranded Saturday night as flooding caused by storms swept across the Nevada desert. Organizers closed vehicle access to the counterculture festival and attendees trudged through mud, many barefoot or with plastic bags on their feet. The revelers were told to take shelter on the spot and store food, water and other supplies. The Pershing County Sheriff’s Office said the death occurred during the event but provided few details as the investigation continued, including the identity of the deceased or the suspected cause of death, KNSD-TV reported. According to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the Black Rock Desert where the festival is being held, vehicle gates will not be open for the remainder of the event, which began Aug. 27 and was scheduled to end Monday. It will be held assuming more than half an inch of rain fell Friday at the festival site, which is about 110 miles (177 kilometers) north of Reno, the Reno National Weather Service said. At least a quarter inch of rain is expected on Sunday. The Reno Gazette Journal reported that organizers had begun rationing ice cream sales and that all vehicle traffic had been halted around the sprawling festival site, leaving portable toilets unserviceable. Officials have not yet said when the entrance is expected to reopen, and it was not immediately known when revelers could leave the grounds. The announcements came just before the climax of the annual event – when a large wooden effigy was set to be burned on Saturday night. Messages left by The Associated Press Saturday afternoon for both the Bureau of Land Management and the Pershing County Sheriff’s Office, the authorities who blocked the entrance, were not immediately returned. Many people played beer pong, danced and splashed in the standing water, the Gazette told The Journal. Mike Jed, a festival goer, and other campers built a bucket toilet so people don’t have to trudge through the mud to get to the portable toilets as often. “If a disaster really does happen, no one will feel sorry for us,” Jed said. “I mean, it’s Burning Man.”