Even the air conditioner! What in the world happened?
Mini tornado? Nope- it was a microburst at 32nd St. &
Greenway. You are probably asking what a "microburst"
is so I will tell you. It is a "localized column of sinking air
and straight-line winds that are similar to tornadoes. A
microburst often has high winds that can knock over fully
grown trees and usually last for a couple seconds". Here is
a diagram of a microburst:
This knocked out 17 power lines along 32nd and
1350 lucky people (including us) were left without
power on the 4th hottest day EVER on record in Phoenix
(I think it got to 118)! This made the news!
Here are some pictures going north along 32nd St.-
this one is just before the Elks lodge.
This is at Acoma- notice that the top third of the telephone
pole is almost seperated and is supported just by the wires!
Even the metal light post was bent over.
This is at Marilyn- the telephone pole looks
shredded.
This one is at Hillery and the telephone post was just
about on the house. Also, the electrical lines were so
low that you could touch them!!
Here is the corner of 32nd & Nisbet.
This is the district school office with a pole just
supported by the building.
This one is at the entrance to the liquor store from
32nd. Again, the top third of the pole is just supported
by the wires but the bottom 2/3 is bent in 1/2.
APS did a great job of working on this mess and by 7 pm,
only 500 were without electricity. Again, we were one of
those "lucky" 500. We decided to buy some dinner out- it's
hard to even think of what to fix when there is no electricity
and it is soooo hot. Carole graciously offered to let us stay
at her house for the night. I had just packed a few things
when the electricity came back on at about 11 pm. The
house quickly cooled down & we could stay home & get some
good rest. Whew! We had no damage- just a huge mess in
the pool and lots of oranges on the ground!
1 comment:
holy cow. crazy pictures! i'm glad you got your power back on. it must have been miserably hot!
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