I live on the edge of South Mountain near the Phoenix/Laveen border. The view is silently beautiful. I can see downtown Phoenix and the hustle and bustle of it's streets, but hear nothing. Serene. The nights are pitch black and in the mornings lone coyotes roam the saguaro forest and rabbits hop. On this day I returned home from work to relax and work on an article before going out for a drink. I'm typing on my laptop when I hear unusually strong winds so I walk out into the daylight to take a look. I see a massive dark cloud approaching...my camera did not do justice in capturing it's volume. To create an idea of my dwelling, my section of the adobe is unattached to the rest of the home so I've sometimes felt like a sitting duck in there. In less than ten minutes after returning inside, the windows began vibrating and my double doors pulsate. I look through the blinds and see rain smacking the window while noticing that a deep darkness has now descended. As I run to the other window to to peak I hear objects being thrown around possibly hitting the entry gate, cars, or the house. At this point I have no idea what's going on and none of my 3 roommates are home. It's just myself, Max the Shih Tzu and my roomy's pup. I pear through the blinds again and see a mattress on top of my roommates van. By this time the vibrating and pulsating of the windows and doors has become much stronger. I'm really beginning to freak out. I'm thinking "Has mother nature has gone wild? Am I in the middle of a tornado in the desert?" Survival mode sets in. I quickly ponder if I can make it to the basement with the pups but I worry because the basement is at the far right of the house and I don't even know if it's unlocked. So I decide to stay in. I began making calls to friends for possible information but no one answers. The internet isn't working either. Thoughts of dying in a tornado in the desert start to infiltrate my mind. Then, suddenly after running around for twenty minutes in panic mode all was calm...and people began to call me back. I find out that I was in the middle of a massive wall of dust. It was the dust storm that made history. It reached me on the mountain before it hit many of them since they were in Tempe. This was the worst dust storm in the area for some time. Friends tell me they were stuck in bars, random people's houses, and stores. The Tempe/Phoenix area is full of pedestrians, cyclists, skateboarders, and such so people are always in the streets. Those that found no shelter when the dust wall swept through became known as the mud people. They were completely covered in it. Pools and cars with windows left open were filled with thick mud. I survived. It was very exciting to talk about after it was over.
