As thousands of people remain unable to leave the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert after heavy rains inundated their campsites with ankle-deep mud Saturday, authorities say they are investigating a death at the event.

Attendees were told to shelter in place in the Black Rock Desert and conserve food, water and fuel after a rainstorm swamped the area, forcing officials to halt any entering or leaving of the festival.

The remote area in northwest Nevada was hit with 2 to 3 months worth of rain – up to 0.8 inches – in just 24 hours between Friday and Saturday mornings. The heavy rainfall fell on dry desert grounds, whipping up thick, clay-like mud that festivalgoers say is too difficult to walk or bike through.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I hate to sound callous, but I don’t feel much sympathy for a rich person who went out to the desert to pretend to be a hippie and didn’t check the weather forecast.

    • Fecundpossum@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I used to run in a party crowd that had a LOT of burning man folks in it. There were a couple of them that had middle class incomes, maybe even leaning upper middle class. Those are usually the ones that had an art car or whatever that they sank some money into, instead of the crap that most upper middle class Americans blow their money on.

      But the rest of them? They worked at restaurants, did massage therapy, teachers, etc. normal people with median or lower incomes that would forego other expenses to set aside a little a money for their annual get high in the desert trip.

      Yes, there’s a bunch of elitists at the core of the event, but it’s not the majority.

        • alignedchaos@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          And done what exactly??

          It rains there sometimes. Forecasts change wildly day to day regardless. But it’s a desert and the water typically evaporates so quickly that an hour later there’s no evidence it rained.

          Not to mention, it’s unlikely the person died from being trapped in the rain. I’m not sure why the article mentions both things except to give news about the event conditions I guess.

    • rifugee@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      With that attitude, the only difference between you and the type of rich person you seem to despise, is wealth.

    • 4am@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      I hate to sound callous

      No, you fucking revel in it. Why the fuck else would you feel the need to post this?

      First you replace them with your straw man (“rich tech bros”) and then burn it down (“tech bros just deserve what they get”)

      Well, stay in your basement you smug piece of shit. Mommy will have tendies ready soon.

      • Coreidan@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        That’s because the people saying this shit think a 100k salary makes you rich.

        These people are so broke that any amount of money to them is “rich”.

    • ZzyzxRoad@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Apparently the weather stations in the SoCal desert didn’t see it coming at all. Not sure how that’s possible, but that’s what they said Friday. Tons of flooding in Palm Springs and Vegas too.