After enduring days of continuous rain, numerous individuals stranded on the muddied playa at the Burning Man festival gradually departed from the secluded region in northwest Nevada on Monday.

Long lines of RVs, trucks, trailers, and other vehicles could be seen in the afternoon as attendees slowly exited across the desert.

Festival organizers delayed the "exodus" of attendees several times because a major road remained "a bit too muddy" for vehicles to pass, according to a statement on the festival website.

Finally, at 2 p.m. (9 p.m. GMT), the festival radio station, BMIR 94.5, announced that "exodus operations have officially begun" and the "driving ban has been lifted." The airport at Black Rock City also reopened in the afternoon, organizers said.

As of Monday afternoon, there were roughly 64,000 people still on site, according to BMIR.

Local authorities are investigating the death of one festival-goer, whose family has been notified, according to a dispatcher at the Pershing County Sheriff’s Office. The fatality, which occurred Friday and was unrelated to the weather, involved an approximately 40-year-old man who could not be resuscitated, a festival spokesperson said.

Monday marked a turning point for this year’s beleaguered festival. The sun shone, warming the Black Rock Desert above 70 degrees, according to the National Weather Service office in Reno. By early afternoon, the festival’s webcast showed people walking and biking around Black Rock City with ease.

Organizers asked attendees to delay their departures until Tuesday to alleviate congestion, and they urged people to wait for a ride from a central location instead of trying to walk through the mud.

Their pleas came too late, however, to stop the many frustrated festival-goers who had already made their escape.

By Sunday afternoon, it was clear to everyone that the exodus would not happen on schedule. For Katya Lee and her crew, that meant splitting camp to conserve food and water and sending a group of 20 on foot in an attempt to evacuate.

They avoided the festival ground’s central "city," which had become almost impassable with mud. They walked out along the open desert with no clear sense of what might await them when they reached the paved road miles away or whether they might become stranded en route.

Rangers in military-style vehicles were traversing the open desert, directing those they saw on foot toward an exit, she said. But with the mid-afternoon rain, their march slowed to a crawl.

They walked for about 3 hours before reaching a charter bus just as darkness fell.

Every seat on the bus was covered with black trash bags. They were transported by one bus, then transferred to another to Reno, where she and three friends shared a hotel room awaiting their return flights to L.A.

"This is why we walked out because we knew if we stayed, we were not going to be able to get another flight," she said. "Around 70,000 people are trying to get home, and we’re going to L.A., which is a big hub. I really wanted to stay. I didn’t want to abandon everyone, but it was smart to go."

On Monday, organizers reminded attendees of the "leave no trace" principle at Burning Man, which means all participants are expected to take out everything they brought in and clean their camp space before leaving the city.

The Black Rock Desert received a half-inch to an inch of rain over the weekend, said Mark Deutschendorf, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Reno. "That’s a couple of months’ rain falling in one day," he said.

People with enough supplies might stick around for Monday night's burning ceremony, but Deutschendorf anticipates long delays for people trying to leave.

"Even on a good year, it takes hours to get out of there," he said.