Thousands Stranded at Burning Man Festival After Heavy Rain Transcript

… Rendon. Let’s get right to KTVU’s Zac Sos with more of what conditions are now live for those stranded in the Nevada desert. Zac.

Yeah. Well, I tell you, all that rain and mud really just making area roads around that festival just virtually impassable. That’s why festival organizers are telling those attending to shelter in place, and with more rain in the forecast it’s really just uncertain how long this could go on.

It is soaking wet here at Burning Man. Look at this water.

Hours after the rain came down in the Nevada desert this week, a flood of social media posts from festival goers at this year’s Burning Man Festival, including from this Bay Area resident searching for a silver lining.

But over here is a double rainbow. Look at that. Look at that. Look at that.

The pop-up community of Black Rock City, host more than 70,000 people each year during the nine-day event, transformed into a muddy mess, prompting festival organizers to shut things down.

Burning Man, water man. So much water. We are flooded. We’re going to be stuck here at least a couple days.

Organizers halting all traffic in and out of the festival except for emergency vehicles and posting to social media, “If you are in Black Rock City, conserve food, water, and fuel, and shelter in a warm, safe space. More updates to come.”

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But with poor cell phone signal in the area it’s a message Lisa Mueller says her son, Dylan and many others at the festival, didn’t immediately receive. Lisa only able to talk to him sparingly using Starlink, a satellite internet provider.

Nobody’s going around warning people. So unless they’re tuned into that radio station that’s giving them updates, they really don’t realize the severity of the situation.

Lisa says, many wood tents have now turned to sleeping in their cars, waiting for conditions to improve so they can go home.

I don’t know how long that mud takes to dry out, but there is nobody going around. There’s nobody bringing them supplies. There’s nobody bringing people water. They literally are telling people to go pee on the ground and save the porta-potty for bowel movements.

And we did just receive a new statement from festival organizers saying, “We are engaged full-time on all aspects of safety and looking ahead to our exodus as our next priority. We will all get out of this. It will just take time.” As a next step, they say they plan to deploy mobile cell trailers and also start a bus service from a nearby town for those who can walk to it. But again, unclear right now how long it may take to open up those main roads again. Cristina.

Wow. Just a mess for everyone involved. Zac Sos reporting live for us tonight. Zac, thank you.