USA:
A giant wall of sand and dust swallowed parts of Phoenix on Monday night.
A powerful wall of dust and sand swallowed parts of the city of Phoenix on Monday night and reduced the visibility to almost zero. That’s what CNN writes.
The sandstorm was quickly followed by severe thunderstorms that tore through the city and left overturned trees, wind damage and extensive power outages.
At Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, a connection bridge was torn in pieces of wind gusts of 113 km/h, according to CNN.
The national weather forecasting service in Phoenix issued danger warnings for both sandstorms and thunderstorms on Monday night. They warned drivers of dangerously low visibility and encouraged people to “drive to the side – save life”.
– Failed to see my hand in front of my face
Among other things, Bernae Boykin Hitesman got to know. She was on her way home from school with her son and daughter of 9 and 11 years when the storm met Arizona City in the late afternoon. She had to suddenly drive to the side when the storm enclosed her car.
– I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face if I reached it out of the window, she tells Ap.
She could feel the taste of the dust and feel how the strong wind shook the car until the storm gave up about 15 minutes later.
– My kids were very, very scared, so I tried to be brave for their sake, she says.
60,000 without power
After the storms had pulled through, more than 60,000 customers in Arizona were without electricity, with the majority of power outages concentrated in Maricopa County, according to Poweroutage.us.
Sandstorms are nothing new in the Arizona’s monsoon season, but this storm was particularly powerful. A thunderstorm collapsed, and the wind fired out in all directions, picked up desert sand and built a rolling wall of dust.
These walls can climb several thousand meters high, extend several miles, and cut off the horizon in seconds – just like a snowstorm in winter. The phenomenon is called Haboob.
“It’s almost impossible to see more than a few meters in front of you in the worst of these storms when the dust suffocates the light,” the weather forecasting service writes.
