See the Videos From Arizona’s Latest Dust Storm That Killed 1
- Posted on October 5, 2011 at 8:59am by
Billy Hallowell
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Public safety officials work the scene of a a multi-car pile-up along Interstate 10 near Picacho Peak, Ariz. on Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2011. (AP Photo/Arizona Daily Star, Kelly Presnell)
PHOENIX (AP) — A blinding dust storm rolled across the Arizona desert Tuesday, causing three pileups involving dozens of vehicles on a major interstate. A 70-year-old man was killed and at least 15 other people were injured, authorities said.
The first two crashes occurred just after noon as a dust storm suddenly covered Interstate 10 near Picacho, about midway between Phoenix and Tucson. Those collisions involved 16 vehicles and led to the fatality.
Video showed dust roiling over dozens of cars, tractor-trailers and ambulances pulled over or strewn about the highway. Authorities were unable to transport injured motorists by helicopter because of the heavy dust.
“It looked like a war zone,” Patrick Calhoun, one of the first rescuers to responder to the scene, told The Associated Press. “This has been one of the worst pileups we’ve had on the I-10.”
Calhoun, with the Avra Valley Fire District, said the man who died was in the passenger seat of a car driven by his wife. Their car had slammed into the back of a semi and was lodged underneath it, killing the man almost instantly and leaving the woman critically injured in a semiconscious state of shock.
Calhoun said it took 45 minutes to hook up winches to the vehicle, pull it out and then cut the woman out of the car to take her to a hospital.
A second vehicle also was lodged under a semi, Calhoun said, and two people were extricated in a similar manner before being taken to a hospital.
A third pileup occurred almost two hours later on I-10 just north of Casa Grande and involved eight vehicles. No one was killed in that collision; two people had serious but non-life-threatening injuries, Graves said. ABC News has more footage of the pileups:
Katie Maass, a spokeswoman at University Medical Center in Tucson, said the hospital was treating 12 patients involved in the collisions. Three were listed as critical and the other nine were in serious condition as of Tuesday evening.
Authorities closed the interstate for most of the afternoon. They reopened the eastbound lanes around 5:45 p.m., and Graves said just before 10 p.m. that officials had reopened all westbound lanes but one.
Two other crashes later in the day likely were the result of dust, authorities said. A crash involving two tractor-trailers and a small car on I-10 near the Gila River Indian Community south of Phoenix seriously injured two people. Another crash on I-10 near Tonopah, west of Phoenix, didn’t involve major injuries, authorities said.
Dust storms are common across Arizona during dry and windy conditions, and walls of dust more than a mile high can blanket an area in a matter of seconds, sometimes reducing visibility to zero.
Winds from the southwest were gusting at up to 40 mph throughout Arizona on Tuesday, said Jessica Nolte, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Phoenix.
“These winds have accumulated so much that when they move through the region they start to pick up the dry top soil,” she said. “It can be a very rapid development.”
The Phoenix area was enveloped in a beige haze for much of the day, obscuring the view of the mountains that surround the metropolitan area.
The winds should taper off Tuesday evening and into Wednesday, Nolte said. Another weather system was expected to move into Arizona on Thursday, and Nolte said it could generate gusts as strong as Tuesday’s.
Nolte said the weather service did not issue a dust storm warning before it occurred but did warn people about the strong winds.
Although it was still early to evaluate the extent of Tuesday’s damage, Graves said dust storms have created worse crashes.
One strong winter storm wreaked havoc in 2009 near Casa Grande, killing three people dead in a series of fiery crashes caused by thick, blowing dust on I-10. One of those killed was a man whose vehicle was rear-ended by his father’s truck. Two teenage siblings also died.
“We did not have that, fortunately, in this situation,” Graves said. “While it‘s sad there’s a fatality and it’s serious, it could have been a lot worse.”
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Armyof One
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 7:57pmAt least it abated quickly. In Iraq, I endured many massive days long dust storms that choked out aircraft and damaged truck engines. Breathing was a chore, and don‘t bother taking a shower since you won’t make it back to your hooch before you turn brown and muddy.
Giant rolling wall that turns the day into a pink night, and the night into the absolute darkest you’ll ever know.
Report Post »steveh931
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 2:54pmDust storms happen in Arizona, most are caused by monsoons. The E.P.A. should be a department of each state government that reports to the state house, not the Federal Government. If stopping the polluting of the environment is their main goal, what better place for them to find the pollution, than actually inspecting the polluters where it originates. E.P.A. out of Washington D.C! Our Elected Officials can hand deliver your findings to the House of Representatives and write laws that are upheld by the U.S. Constitution without interfering with Commerce. One more thing, what better place for the E.P.A. than at the State level, so the people can be made aware of the polluters and change things at the local level.
Report Post »ecurbyy
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 10:00amIn Jan. 2012 the E.P.A. is passing “dust control legislation”. That should take care of this problem. If they find you have to much dust, you will be fined. I hope whoever gets elected in 2012 turns out the lights, locks the doors and ends this ridiculous bureau.
Report Post »ErvKosch
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 10:06amThe EPA is needed, period. But that is shear stupidity.
Report Post »cntrlfrk
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 9:58am‘
If only the EPA had more regulations and taxes on dust, this would never happen.
:o/
Report Post »christos
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 9:42am…Wait till they breakout their new technology Smart Dust that can track anyone anywhere…
Report Post »AzDebi
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 9:42amI’m pretty familiar with that stretch of I10…there are signs everywhere that warn that this is a “High Dust” area…it is also flat as a pancake across that stretch of the desert…I also would have thought they would have seen it coming and I’m sure that many did slow down and pull over…God bless the injured and family of the one who died.
Report Post »MidWestMom
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 9:25amas a dust storm suddenly covered Interstate 10 …..
walls of dust more than a mile high can blanket an area in a matter of seconds,……
Questions for those who live in dust storm areas:
Report Post »Couldn’t the motorists see this thing coming in time to pull over? Do these storms go develop that quickly? From nothing to huge literally right overhead?
MidWestMom
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 9:30amoops. scratch out that “go”. Not enough coffee yet LOL
Report Post »Kathy H
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 1:50pmI live here in Az. and yes these dust storms due come in quickly and leave that fast. you can compare it to the fog in the midwest but you have a better warning as the fog starts out light and gets thicker so your visibility is zero. Out in fields you can see dirt or dust devils swirling around and they do move very fast…
Report Post »My comments to some of these idiots talking about the EPA fining and taxing us for the dust…They need to understand we are a dry state with lots of deserts which is provided by Mother Nature and we have no control over her.. If that is the case maybe we should fine and tax the midwest and East for the rain and snow they produce from the storms there…that pollute our water and lakes and oceans…
ares338
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 9:07amThis just goes to show that when your time is up it’s up. Was this Bush’s fault also?
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 9:05amSeen part of the storm to the east and south reaches of where I live in AZ. My prayers for the injured and the family of the one who died.
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