A lot of people are talking about this.
Over the weekend, nearly 70,000 people
were ordered to stay put and conserve
food and water as crews closed the roads
down around a Burning Man in Nevada.
Burning Man is an annual event many
described as a communal experience,
and today I caught up with some Idahoans
who went to Burning Man to find out
what their experience was like.
These are just some of the images the
world saw from this year's Burning Man.
A muddy mess and lines and lines of cars.
You take a step in the mud and
you'd bring up an inch or two
inches worth of mud with you. And
we're kind of on an island.
You really couldn't move or
just getting mud everywhere.
You couldn't bike, you couldn't drive.
Heavy rains flooded the area and
stop some people from leaving.
Once it started raining, the city,
which has its own organization,
issued a shelter in place order.
And once that happened,
I think a lot of people freaked
out because they were worried they
weren't going to be able to get out.
So they decided to leave right then.
And unfortunately for them,
it made the situation far worse
because they were driving on the
roads that were freshly rained upon,
you know, digging huge ruts into
the road and getting stuck,
which if they just waited a couple
more days for it to dry out,
you know, they would have been fine.
But not everyone tried to leave.
Oh yeah, look at that.
It's a very special
kind of mud out there.
It's we call it the Playa,
but it's a good mix of
mud and clay and alkaline.
KTVB photographer and self-proclaimed burner
Jason Foster was prepared for the conditions.
I thought it was great.
It didn't bother me at all,
but I also knew to stay in place.
It's the people that tried to move
around when the when it was all mud
that I think really got into trouble.
The altitude lounge forecast is mostly sunny.
Jason has been to Burning Man 16 times. There
are 10 principles of the burn,
one of which is radical
selfreliance and that's basically
just being able to take care of
yourself through all situations.
And I think rain qualifies
as one of those situations.
I definitely earned my Radical
Selfreliance patch this year,
but yeah, I don't think many people
were prepared for the challenge of
the mix of the rain and the mud coming
together On Saturday afternoon.
I walked out into the rain
and I'd never seen
the Playa that empty. The Playa
were first, the area where those
who attend Burning Man camp.
We saw the people that tried to leave and
and they were just mucking up the Playa
for Boise man Mark Radsma.
It was his first time at Burning Man.
It wasn't as bad as,
as some people said,
I hear in the desert,
and it's going to do what it does,
so just do your best to
live in that situation.
I had a blast.
The rain became the great equalizer.
You know, there's a lot of
electric bites out there.
There's a lot of art cars,
there's all kinds of things,
and the rain destroyed
everybody's ability to use those.
So everybody was on foot
after the rains came,
and that's something I really enjoyed.
This moment still happened despite
the rain or shine or mud,
an experience that will forever
burn in the memories of all who
attended this year's Burning Man.
And Jason tells me that mass exodus
of cars leaving is actually a typical
site that happens every year.
Because everyone is leaving at the same time.
And the only difference though is this
year was a little more challenging
because that day got moved back.
And we should also note,
one person was killed at
this year's Burning Man,
and they're suspected of dying
from drug intoxication.