Arizona Dust Storm: Thousands Without Power, Flights Grounded

A towering dust cloud caused havoc in Arizona on Monday, grounding flights and leaving thousands without power.

The slow-moving cloud — known as a haboob — hit parts of Phoenix and Arizona City, 60 miles to the southeast, late Monday afternoon, at one point leaving 15,000 energy customers in the dark. The number still without power Tuesday morning was more than 5,000, according to Poweroutage.us, mostly in Maricopa County.

Videos posted on social media showed entire neighborhoods engulfed in darkness as the dust storm rolled through. A video shot from a passing plane showed the sheer extent of the cloud, stretching for miles into the distance.

Heavy wind and rain followed the dust storm, causing delays at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, the country's 11th-busiest airport, which sustained some damage to a terminal roof.

Flash flood warnings were in effect in some parts of Arizona and eastern California on Monday night. Police in Gilbert, southeast of Phoenix, said heavy rain brought down trees and caused traffic light outages.