San Diego man trapped at festival after heavy rains – NBC 7 San Diego

Tens of thousands of people trapped at the Burning Man festival in the northern Nevada desert are still rationing water and food as of Sunday night. A San Diego man is one of them.

Bill Huey has been attending Burning Man for years. Cell reception in the area was poor, so he sent NBC 7 a series of voice recordings describing the moment things began to change once the rain took center stage.

"I was pretty fatigued the day of the rains, and I didn't know how severe it was," he said in one of the recordings. "I was aware there was going to be a rain event Sunday, but when it started raining harder, I realized that there was going to be some impact to traction and vehicles on the main roads and the playa."

More than 70,000 people are stranded in the desert. The event was essentially shut down, and attendees were told to shelter in place, according to notices from the event's organizers.

"It's 50/50. People can make it out with all-wheel drive vehicles, or attempting to do so. There's a truck, I think it's a Ram Big Horn, that is stuck because it only has two-wheel drive right now. The front end is stuck in the mud," he said.

Now, with people trapped around the site, he worries conditions could get worse.

"It's really sketchy, and there are black clouds looming over, and I'm not sure how bad this rainstorm is that's coming in [Sunday night]," he said.

Despite the mud and rain storms, Huey says he still plans to attend Burning Man events in the future.

"The burn is something that is special to me," Huey said. "I will definitely go back here, and almost everybody will probably say the same."

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