Burning Man Black Rock City wait times hit 10 hours after dust storms

Burning
Man participants and art cars are dwarfed by a large desert dust
storm rolling across the desert as approximately 70,000 people
from all over the world attend the 3rd day of the annual Burning
Man arts and music festival in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada,
August 30, 2017.
Jim
Bourg/Reuters

• Thousands of people arrived in Black Rock City, Nevada,
  over the weekend for Burning Man, which officially began on
  Sunday.
• Dust storms caused dangerous driving conditions that
  day, prompting a three-hour closure of city gates.
• Wait times peaked around 10 hours and were still six to
  seven hours-long on Monday morning.
• During the closure, festival organizers told attendees
  to return to nearby Reno or stay put on the
  highway. 

Wait times to enter
Black Rock City — the temporary city in Nevada where
Burning Man is held every August — reportedly hit 10 hours on
Sunday after dust storms caused dangerous driving conditions and
prompted a three-hour closure of the gates,
the Reno Gazette-Journal reported.

Most of the 70,000
Burning Man attendees went to the desert this past Sunday,
when the festival officially began. 

The drive from a local county
road to the city gates can take as little as 15 minutes. However,
it’s common for attendees to experience whiteout conditions.
Before the gates closed on Sunday, poor visibility led to
multiple halts in traffic since festival participants were unable
to drive safely.

Burning Man organizers told
participants on their way to Black Rock City to either go back to
Reno — which is two hours south of Black Rock City — or stay put
on the highway.

“
Entry to
Burning Man remains closed and weather reports indicate this will
last for hours,” the
organizers tweeted on Sunday evening. “Please hold in Reno,
Cedarville, or any other city capable of supporting an influx of
waiting burners. We are turning away cars trying to reach the
event, sending them back down CR34.”

As of Monday morning, the wait
time was still six to seven hours long, according
to an unverified Twitter account estimating Burning Man traffic
times. The official
Burning Man account has been retweeting some of these
updates.

Some Burners were already inside
the festival gates when the dust storms hit. Volunteers have
been arriving over the past month to
build the city and prepare all of the infrastructure for the
festival.

According to the Reno
Gazette-Journal, attendees put on masks and goggles and waited
inside tents, RVs, or behind trucks.