Around 20,000 residents were without power till Tuesday afternoon. About 70,000 houses and business complexes were left in the dark immediately after the storm. The severe weather started affecting the region at sunset on Monday. The storm was accompanied by heavy rains of 40 mm, lightning and strong winds of about 100 kmph. On the interstate-10 freeway, flooding caused by the heavy downpour closed the ramps. A tractor was toppled by the strong winds. There was major traffic problems as dozens of traffic signals were not working during rush hour on Tuesday morning.
The fire department got 400 calls in just 2 hours which is what they receive in the entire day. There were numerous fire related incidents of which one of them was a fire in a house which started due to lightning strike.
The Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport operations were also disrupted as flight take offs and landings were suspended for about an hour. The train shuttle service was also halted.
This kind of severe weather is common for this time of the year for this region. Storms usually strike late afternoon or early evening and are often accompanied by huge dust storms.
Image credit: komonews.com