Dust Cyclone on Wednesday

diane o'thirst · Post by **diane o'thirst** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 5:13 pm

"Uhh, Robert...LOOK WHAT'S COMING."

That's what I said when I saw the mile-high wall of dust coming from the Gate. The day before, my newly-erected semi-yurt took a direct hit from a thirty-second wide dust devil but I knew this was more serious. I felt a slight grip of panic but in the city, I heard whoops of elated awe and decided that this was something to be worked with, experienced, and not feared. On go the goggles, strap a bandana over my mouth and nose, and dive into securing our camp.

We had about five minutes' warning from sight to hit. When the cyclone hit, winds coming from the west, I knew this was going to be fierce but under Robert's centred leadership we secured the Aluminet tarp over the common area. I watched my yurt list and shimmy as gust after gust hammered it into an egg profile and the top tarp flapped and bucked within its web of compression and suspension ropes. At one point the dust got to me and I hid in my car, but I got back out after a few minutes and got back to work.

The eye of the storm came and with it, fierce winds but clear air. This lasted a few minutes and then I looked toward the Esplanade. "Oh my God, here it comes again!" A mile-high wall of dust. Our common shelter was up and secure, but I didn't dare go into the yurt. Back into the car. The winds hit and COMPLETE WHITE-OUT. Visibility reduced to zero. The common shelter was six feet to my right, the yurt to my left about ten feet away. Couldn't see either, for a good fifteen minutes. I heard things slapping and breaking, the car rocked, and I worried that this was going to be like the last day of '01, hours and hours of white out with five-minute breaks of clear.

And then...it was over. Nervously I came out, ears and nose, like a cornered animal emerging from its burrow. That's exactly what I felt like. I scanned the horizon all day, every minute or so, watching for the wall of dust. I stood in the shambles of my yurt, but didn't cry, I just buckled down to work. Anpu suggested I go for a spiderweb/dream-catcher approach to rebuilding the ceiling and take the cover off my market umbrella to use as a rooftree.

And then I noticed something incredible: the storm had scoured all the dust that had been building up since Saturday, when we got there. I'd been saying earlier, that I hated to think what the dust situation would be like on the weekend, but it was all gone now. Poppa Shu had given us a half-hour of intensity, to spare us hours of drudgery and bloody cracked skin. I smiled, hummed Beethoven's "Prayer of Thanksgiving After the Storm," and rebuilt my camp.

Tell me your Wednesday Storm stories!

mars · Post by **mars** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 6:18 pm

From where we were (9 o'clock and Destiny) we could see this monstrous cyclone from a distance. I wondered what was going on in there...now I know. Thanks for the description.

Neon

QueenOfTheBeans · Post by **QueenOfTheBeans** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 6:39 pm

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v286/ ... 0_6372.jpg

Scary bugger.

joel the ornery · Post by **joel the ornery** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 7:12 pm

that was my friend peter blowing into black rock city the day i arrived.

hello peter, i miss you.

diane o'thirst · Post by **diane o'thirst** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 7:49 pm

Actually what you pictured was the dust devil that hit camp the day before (and rolled right over my yurt). I'm talking about that huge thing that happened Wednesday afternoon, it was a city-wide swath.

Photos from the heart of the storm when I get my cameras developed tomorrow.

Post by **Eric** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 12:41 am

Me and a bunch of friends were at the Deep End when the Wednesday White-Out hit. We looked up and saw the wall of dust heading our way- barely had time to get my goggles on & was putting on my mask when it hit.

So thick you could only see about 10-20 feet where we were- but the great part was that the music kept playing & people kept dancing! We laughed & bounced and were lucky that no-one was hit when part of the Deep End sign blew down (it became "The Deep" for a while)

I would have been happy at that point for the storm to rage all week. I regained my senses of course.

Other than the fact that the early storms made a mess of our dome cover I really enjoyed them- but I did see a lot of newbies out there in the middle of them without either goggles or masks. I also had a few stop in our camp & ask for water since they forgot to bring their bottles from camp (gladly given, of course). I worry that as the city grows people aren't taking the survival guide seriously.

aftershock · Post by **aftershock** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 1:09 am

There were three storms/cyclones that day. I was out on the playa and got to watch two of them (one pictured above) trace the arc of the city. Then I came home and got hammered by the big one around 6p that Eric refers to above.

And yes, that was fun. :D

Myliatronic · Post by **Myliatronic** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 12:56 pm

I was swinging on a giant swingset with my buddy CoDay when his eyes bugged out and he pointed to the horizon saying 'look at that!' ...I could not see what he was talking about and searched for a skydiver or smokering or something until I realized that the sky was not blue, but playa colored about a mile up the horizon, and moving in on us fast. I donned my goggles and dust scarf and continued swinging until the neighboring camp finished playing a particularly bouncy disco house song, and then hopped off the swing right as the dust wall hit us. I could barely see Co a couple feet away from me, and we skipped merrily down the street as people ran for cover on all sides of us. We walked around in it for a few minutes before ducking into a yurt with a few other kids.

Seeing the damage the storm was causing to the yurt, we decided we had better get home and check on our camp. It took a couple shifts, stopping for cover now and again in thrashing structures and helping secure them. Finally we made it back and discovered that our neighbors' semi and RV were providing a great wind-break and our camp was doing just fine :) ...everyone was sitting around singing and playing music with goggles and dust masks on, refusing to let the storm get em down.

When it started to clear up, I went down the street to the steam bath to clear my lungs and skin. By the time I got out, the storm was over, I was clean, soft and moisturized, and totally rejuvenated for the night of craziness ahead :D

ubu · Post by **ubu** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 1:10 pm

Nice playa surfing Mylia,

I was at about 4:00 when I saw the wall coming. I knew what it meant when I saw it, so I quickly rode back to 6:30 to my camp, yelling the whole way, "you have three or four minutes till mother nature kicks your ass."

Our structures were already secure, but our neighbors, who had spent two days attempting to erect a 30 ft tree trunk covered with a parachute, were about to really get a taste of mama's rage. Everything including the 30ft tree and all the wooden outer poles went flying in deadly form across the street. Luckily no one was hurt. I had everyone in our camp enter a vehicle for the whiteout phase. Then we served tea during the latter phase in our somehat tattered but still secure dome.

I then rode out on the playa and helped the boys from Bristol tidy up their lovely inflated plant, one of my favorite pieces on the playa. The Belgian waffle was making its own dust storm for a good twenty minutes and it was pelting from 2 to 3 oclock with dust. damn adorable people, those boys from Bristol.

Be advised that during such a storm it is best to seek a vehicle or something secure and enclosed, as flying or falling debris can seriously injure you. If your neighbors structure is not secure, it can can kill just as well as if you had not secured your own. Glad to be alive.

diane o'thirst · Post by **diane o'thirst** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 1:35 pm

ubu wrote:Be advised that during such a storm it is best to seek a vehicle or something secure and enclosed, as flying or falling debris can seriously injure you. If your neighbors structure is not secure, it can can kill just as well as if you had not secured your own. Glad to be alive.

This is why next year, I'm retiring the yurt and getting a camper van like my campmates did.

(This is nuts, the Ride of the Valkyries came on the radio just as I started reading your story, ubu)

Great stories, keep 'em coming!

aftershock · Post by **aftershock** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 1:39 pm

Be advised that during such a storm it is best to seek a vehicle or something secure and enclosed, as flying or falling debris can seriously injure you. If your neighbors structure is not secure, it can can kill just as well as if you had not secured your own. Glad to be alive.

No kidding. I spent most of that storm holding down things that wanted to fly away and hurt people and hoping I did not get hurt while doing so. I didn't, except for a little scrape on my elbow I have no memory of acquiring. But it was exciting. I don't weigh very much, which made it more exciting to be holding onto things that had turned into sails. All of them ended up getting cut loose to save them.

ubu · Post by **ubu** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 1:53 pm

diane o'thirst wrote: (This is nuts, the Ride of the Valkyries came on the radio just as I started reading your story, ubu)

Now that is synchronicity or urchronicity as the old cronopio julio cortazar used to say.

Unfortunately not even a secure vehicle is safe if your neighbors do not have their act together. One friend had a pole impale his vehicle. Would have killed him if he were in the driver's seat.

Check out your neighbors and get all busybody and nosy on them. Offer them your knowledge and experience. Offer them your rebar if they do not have it.

Study the sky and the know the direction of the storm.
Get into the enclosure that seems the least compromised by any structure that you are not sure of.

Make a decision and cross your fingers.

PlayaPetal · Post by **PlayaPetal** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 5:13 pm

Me and my campmate QP were leaving Barbie Deathcamp and didn't even notice the storm until we were on the esplanade already - we just hankered down with dust masks and goggles and kept jiggling the bike baskets that were covered in bells so that others could at least hear we were there...trying to make our way to shelter whenever we could see clear enough to move...was a hell of a ride - I was worried that our camp had flown away, but our other campmates were able to keep it all together. Ahh good times, good times....

patnmarilyn · Post by **patnmarilyn** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 6:46 pm

good point about being "nosey but helpful" as you see your
closeby neighbors set up their camps!
We are weather watchers and knew about the potential Wednesday storms from the technical weather sites that post 10 day-out weather probabilities....There should be such URL's posted in the survival guide so all of the attendees could at least know a little of what's to come...We were ready for it Tuesday nite when the winds began picking up!! We didn't hesitate telling the neighbors, even if it made us look a little overbearing!!
Also, during the 2004 winds, Rangers came by all the camps with warnings of what was to come (50 mph gusts)...which was helpful...Some kind of early warning (Rangers, sirens) should be implemented....like in tornado country...Sure, we should be self-reliant, but a little help from the org for the stupid would be appreciated...Know that the ticket warns us, but they could also give a loud shout on megaphones before such a big one as the Wednesday storm....Dusty, but survived and of course, returning next year for more!!!

Post by **AntiM** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 7:25 pm

I remember whiteout warning sirens in eyars past. This year we just had an assclown neighbor with a megaphone siren which was set off at random times.

geekster · Post by **geekster** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 9:45 am

We were just returning from a ride-about on the playa in the art car. I was coming in on 4:30 and when I turned the corner toward center camp on Anxious, there is was. We got to camp and I yelled into our lounge area for everyone that had goggles and masks to get them on and for everyone else to shelter in place until it passed. The tornado passed directly through the camp and we suffered only very minor damage as one multipart support pole lifted and one of the sections fell out. When the roof dropped back down the lack of support caused some minor bending of the pole that holds the peak of the tarp but we were able to live with it.

At that point we drove extra rebar, taped up the pipe junctions and survived the later wall of white without incident. It certainly impressed our camp virgins!

sputnik · Post by **sputnik** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 9:57 am

I was out at my project, just a bit away from the cathedral. I saw this wall of dust coming from across the playa and decided I would stay where I was to see what would happen to the fabric squares on the ground. My thinking about what would happen matched what did happen. Wind at ground level was not as strong as wind a foot above the ground. The material flapped in the breeze like a flag, but staples were enough to hold them to the lines.

I was shirtless and the whipping dust and dirt dug into my skin. I found an unused piece of fabric, pulled it around myself and hunkered down, holding my box of supplies under my legs.

When the dust cleared someone yelled for help from about a quarter mile away. He had seen a 3' x 7' door panel blowing across the playa from a project farther out and had been able to stand on it when it stopped momentarily. We carried the panel half a mile or so to the worksite it came from. That panel could easily have killed someone if it had hit them.

pbmaniac2000 · Post by **pbmaniac2000** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 11:40 am

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e195/ ... 006033.jpg

Yeah that was a scary thing to see heading your way.[/img]

haptotrope · Post by **haptotrope** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 11:45 am

The one pictured above wasn't the one that scared me. the one that scared me, seemed to set-down near the man, and came barreling towards 3:30 and Esp. and then veered off towards 3-2:30ish - It was a swirling mass of dark dust. Someone said it was an F2-3 tornado (confirmations? reports?) People were riding their bikes into it because either they were tempting fate, or were too close to it to see exactly how insanely huge it was.

The next hour or two was spent reinforcing our quonsett huts, physically holding the structure down, and rebaring until we couldn't re-bar no more. (many thanks to those who helped!)

pbmaniac2000 · Post by **pbmaniac2000** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 12:12 pm

That was that one. It went right over the top of the man then continued towards 2:30ish.

Here are two more pics taken from 2:00 and esplanade.

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e195/ ... 006030.jpg

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e195/ ... 006031.jpg

bradtem · Post by **bradtem** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 12:46 pm

While that story was a juicy looking one, I may be missing something by having been at 8:45 because it was pretty minor compared to some of the whiteout storms I've seen in the past. 2000 had a storm that damaged a good chuck of the structures in the city, with people having to hold onto everything. And Post-event in 2002 had the storm people call "condition alpha" which had people unable to find their vehicle from 10' away, severe dust clouds inside sealed RVs, noboody able to move for several days and one guy spending the entire day in a porta-potty rather than go outside in the hurricane force winds that drove dust into your skin so hard you bled.

ubu · Post by **ubu** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 12:49 pm

haptotrope wrote:The one pictured above wasn't the one that scared me. the one that scared me, seemed to set-down near the man, and came barreling towards 3:30 and Esp. and then veered off towards 3-2:30ish - It was a swirling mass of dark dust. Someone said it was an F2-3 tornado (confirmations? reports?) People were riding their bikes into it because either they were tempting fate, or were too close to it to see exactly how insanely huge it was.

The next hour or two was spent reinforcing our quonsett huts, physically holding the structure down, and rebaring until we couldn't re-bar no more. (many thanks to those who helped!)

Ha, I did chase that dust devil. and gave it enough distance to not endanger myself or get dusty from it. Someone, asked me if I rode through. Are you nuts? You get enough dust when you try to avoid it. Why tempt fate?

Safety. Hygeine.

Shoot for those and you at least survive. always dustier and dirtier. but alive. so alive.

Jerry Rig · Post by **Jerry Rig** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 1:02 pm

the tornado missed our camp, but a huge blast of wind came a lil later and ripped our initially half assed tarp job off our G-domes, and str8 up squashed our tent and a neighboring yurt.

diane o'thirst · Post by **diane o'thirst** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 2:00 pm

That's the third "yurt mauled" report I've heard about this storm. Mine wasn't completely up and locked down, so it suffered; almost flipped over and was forced into an egg profile.

I do advise that anyone who wants to put up a yurt out there, do it the whole way — don't leave off the dome/door/tiedown cable, otherwise the yurt can't hold itself together and its structure is compromised. They're designed as a redundant interlocking compression system; the whole structure holds its shape dynamically in a high wind situation. It withstood the Opera Night '98 storm and the 2001 Monday day-long whiteout.

RINGMASTER · Post by **RINGMASTER** » Sat Sep 09, 2006 10:35 pm

our neighbors camp was ripped apart. they had a shade structure over their car that lifted about 15 feet in the air and started flying away (6:35/guess) dragging one of them with it. the 2nd one jumped on it before it took out the camp behind them.

luckily it wasnt thursday because all the people seemed to fill in after that and it surely would have ruined someone else's day

Tristan · Post by **Tristan** » Sun Sep 10, 2006 11:45 pm

you mean, this little dust devil?

DoctorIknow · Post by **DoctorIknow** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 10:19 am

I was so bored by last years perfect weather, which seemed to continue the first three days this year, I was ELATED to see some rough stuff.

Seeing it about 6 blocks away, I put on my full face respirator, shoved earplugs in my ears and biked it straight into the eye. Big air mattrass made a couple of 360's, people trying to hold down their structures, garbage flyin' and about ten more crazy bikers like me following the cyclone.

In just a couple of minutes, we had to stop the chase at the trash fence. A few were yelling "Come back!" Some went thru but couldn't catch it...

Yeah, I wasn't thinking too clearly and am lucky to not get impaled, but it was my best weather experience since the day(s) long 112degree heat about 9 years ago. I doubt it's even hit 95degrees in '05&'06. And whats with the no rain and the cruise ship like balmy evenings? Being comfortable out there is just wrong except for those who need their costumes/attire to be seen in perfect weather conditions.

mamagrrl · Post by **mamagrrl** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 10:47 am

What geekster failed to mention is that our neighbors completely failed to listen to any of our suggestions or warnings about the big blow coming in. Maybe 'cause it was chicks who came over to warn them, or maybe they had never lived through a big blow before.

They lost their entire structure and display area, as in, gone flat on top of them (nobody hurt.)

We didn't lose a thing. ...and our virgins were especially AWESOME checking all the straps and rebar levels in the whipping dust. They had it DOWN.
Rebar, rebar driver, duct tape and ratchet straps.
Lordy loves a woman with power tools.

blyslv · Post by **blyslv** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 11:05 am

WORST DUSTSTORM IN BURNINGMAN HISTORY!!!!

stevefarris24 · Post by **stevefarris24** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 10:10 am

no one in my camp expected that thing to continue for as long as it did. we had just started to prepare dinner. i hid under a blanket, but the others kept attempting to make dinner. you should have seen them trying to slice vegetables and light the stove with the wind and dust blowing everywhere! :roll:

Dust Cyclone on Wednesday

Dust Cyclone on Wednesday

big storm

Juicy dust storms

worst ever?