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See the Massive Dust Storm That Caused Chaos & Shut Down an OK Interstate

Oct. 19, 2012 7:10am Billy Hallowell

Massive Dust Storm Shuts Down Oklahoma Interstate

Rescue personnel from the Tonkawa Fire Department extricate a woman pinned in vehicle after it was involved in an accident on Interstate 35, one of 12 accidents involving 27 vehicles which took place during massive dust storm sweeping through Kay County, Okla. Thursday Oct. 18, 2012. Credit: AP

TULSA, Okla. (TheBlaze/AP) — A massive dust storm swirling reddish-brown clouds over northern Oklahoma triggered a multi-vehicle accident along a major interstate Thursday, forcing police to shut down part of the heavily traveled roadway amid near blackout conditions.

In a scene reminiscent of the Dust Bowl days, choking dust suspended on strong wind gusts shrouded Interstate 35, which links Dallas and Oklahoma City to Kansas City, Mo. Video from television station helicopters showed the four-lane highway virtually disappearing into billowing dust on the harsh landscape near Blackwell, plus dozens of vehicles scattered in the median and on the shoulders.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Jodi Palmer, a dispatcher with the Kay County Sheriff’s Office. “In this area alone, the dirt is blowing because we’ve been in a drought. I think from the drought everything’s so dry and the wind is high.”

Massive Dust Storm Shuts Down Oklahoma Interstate

The rear of a car sits on top of another following a crash on Interstate 35 on Thursday, Oct. 18, 2012, near Blackwell, Okla. (AP Photo/The Ponca City News, Rolf Clements)

The highway patrol said the dust storm caused a multi-car accident, and local police said nearly three dozen cars and tractor-trailers were involved. Blackwell Police Chief Fred LeValley said nine people were injured, but there were no fatalities.

State transportation workers were called into to close the highway between U.S. 60 and Oklahoma 11, an 8-mile stretch of the cross-country roadway.

“We have very high winds and blowing dust causing a near blackout condition,” Capt. James West of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said Thursday afternoon. He said visibility was less than 10 feet.

The stretch of closed roadway reopened Thursday evening after crews cleaned up debris and waited for winds to die down, Oklahoma Department of Transportation spokesman Cole Hackett said.

The area is just south of the Kansas state line in far northern Oklahoma. Interstate 35 runs from the Mexican border in south Texas to Duluth, Minn.

A red flag fire warning was in place for parts of northern Oklahoma on Thursday, as was a blowing dust advisory.

The National Weather Service forecast for the area said winds would subside to 20 mph or lower overnight but that gusts as high as 28 mph could continue. Calm winds were expected by Friday night.

Here’s video of the storm:

The area has suffered through an extended drought and many farmers had recently loosened the soil while preparing for the winter wheat season.

“You have the perfect combination of extended drought in that area … and we have the extremely strong winds,” said Gary McManus, the Oklahoma associate state climatologist.

“Also, the timing is bad because a lot of those farm fields are bare. The soil is so dry, it’s like powder. Basically what you have is a whole bunch of topsoil waiting for the wind to blow it away. It’s no different from the 1930s than it is now.”

Steve Austin, a Kay County commissioner, said visibility was terrible.

“It looked like a huge fog was over the city of Ponca City,” he said. “We’ve had dust storms before, but I don’t remember anything of this magnitude in years.”

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Comments (21)

kalli
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 5:20pm
Dust storms with high winds are terrible to be in on the road. I guess one could say that real estate was really moving in OK. I have family and friends who live in OK, and in an email to a friend on Wed. told her of the fierce winds here at Buckley Air Base in CO. showing 62mph. I thought we were having a tornado…it was that scary!

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OklahomaBound
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 3:03pm
I was very close to all of this yesterday. The story mentions Ponca City and Northern OK where I was working for part of the day as a tanker truck driver at the time. I started the day loading in Ponca City early in the morning to take a load to Enid, OK about 20 miles south and another 30 miles west of there. Early in the morning it was calm. While in Enid the winds came up dramatically to the point of where I had to stand with one leg back and one forward bracing myself to keep from being blown over as I made my fuel delivery. When I left Enid to head back to the company terminal in Oklahoma City I traveled the 30 miles east to get back to I-35 and I noted the orange sky ahead of me as the recently tilled red dirt farm fields allowed the strong winds to lift the dirt into the air. Fortunately I did not experience the blinding conditions despite being caught in the high winds, but I could see it in the distance ahead of me. I really don’t think this had as much to do with drought conditions as the story indicates, it seemed to have more to do with the fact that a lot of the farm fields up there are currently tilled up and with the sudden appearance of the strong winds it allowed the dirt to become air born.

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FesteAinoriba
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 1:41pm
It is always a good idea to keep driving even though you can’t see what is in front of you. I remember at least two cases where drivers who had hit pedestrians complained that they were blinded by the sun and couldn’t see what was in front of them. I remember reading that defense/explanation and shaking my head in bewilderment.

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mlimberg
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 12:08pm
It’s harvest time in the Great Plains…. It happens…

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pragmaticpatriot
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 11:22am
grew up in oklahoma, these happen every year, this one is just later in the year. at least it didnt rain right afterwards! ive had inches of mud on my truck.

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- sillyfreshness
  Posted on October 19, 2012 at 12:05pm
  History repeats itself.
  
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NWCarey
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 10:28am
After the first dust storms, trees were planted along the northern edges of the state and various properties to make sure this didn’t happen again. Now, they’ve been taking the trees out for whatever reason. I’ll bet they remember now why they were there to begin with.

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- OklahomaBound
  Posted on October 19, 2012 at 3:15pm
  You have no idea what you are talking about. Oklahoma is a Plains State that is mostly flat and wide open with farm fields, nobody is taking out trees and suffering any consequences as a result. If you want to make $hit up go over to HuffPo.
  
  Report this comment
- girving
  Posted on October 20, 2012 at 11:10am
  Any trees that are in that area were planted by people that settled there. No trees were removed intentionally. Read a book and get back to us.
  
  Report this comment
- NWCarey
  Posted on October 24, 2012 at 5:08pm
  My parents were raised in Western Oklahoma, so I know quite a bit about what I’m saying.
  
  The trees I am talking about were planted in the 30′s, usually, along the northern edge of the section since the winds for these storms came out of the north. Over time, 30-40 years of no major incidents, the trees were being taken out for what reasons, I don’t know.
  
  So, learn history from those that lived it.
  
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thegreatcarnac
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 10:14am
Grapes of Wrath…..anyone?????

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hstrick
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 9:25am
There was one on the plains of Colorado when I was a kid that lasted three days. You couldn’t even see the car parked on the street in front of our house and it infiltrates everything even inside with the doors and windows shut.

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Jenny Lind
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 8:53am
At least there is some comfort that no one was killed. Hurts the land though.

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TheMajority
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 8:31am
Much like a snow storm with windy conditions, but much more visibility. I am sure there are some dense spots, but the pictures would be nothing but white in the snow storms we frequently have every winter. When you can’t see the hood of your car just past your windshield wipers, it is called a “white out”. You never know if your going to hit somebody, or be rear ended when you drive into them.
At least the snow isn’t dirty though. I can see one dust storm ruining your car engine if the air flter is bad.

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Gary_K
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 8:30am
Cool !

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piper60
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 8:23am
Seems to me, that they should have been able to do 2 things:(1) predict or at least see it coming, and (2) Shut the darn road down Before the wrecks started happening.
With all the technology that we have, couldn’t this have been prevented?

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- Zipit
  Posted on October 19, 2012 at 10:17am
  PIPER! I guess you need to experience one of these things to realize just how quickly they both can appear, and then disappear! Often, by the time you see it, you are in it! It would be almost impossible to predict the intensity of one of these storms, and even if you could, by the time you got there to shut down the road, someone would have been be caught in it, and lucky not to suffer some kind of damage. Blizzard’s (white outs), haboob’s in Arizona, dust storms on the plains, and even freakish downpours can all render the same result!
  
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Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 7:58am
We have such storms in AZ during our monsoon seasons.

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ThePostman
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 7:56am
Amazing how the depression started *before* the dust bowl last time, too.

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- ImChiquita
  Posted on October 19, 2012 at 11:15am
  Oh, I’m with you.
  
  I’m not from here, so as an outsider to the state, I’m frustrated that most people here aren’t recognizing the signs: drought….depression….famine….
  
  It’s coming.
  
  Report this comment
kickagrandma
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 7:46am
Grew up in these kinds of storms. Frightening and extremely powerful, they can carry messages to us.

PRAY ON, AMERICA.

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