Orange blanket of dust engulfs Sydney

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, the dust cloud was more than 500 kilometers wide and 1000 kilometers long and came from the drought stricken interior of Australia by gale force winds.

Even schools were shut and people were spotted covering their noses with handkerchiefs as the New South Wales state government announced that the dust was hazardous to health.

“The storm was Australia’s largest since October 2003 when about 16 megatons of dust was swept out to sea off the state’s southern coast,” says Ross Mitchell, a scientist at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization.

Air, water and land traffic disrupted
The visibility was so bad that all railway and airway services in and around the city were halted and the passengers were left waiting at the terminals for hours to reach their desired destinations.

Reportedly, 18 flights scheduled for Sydney were diverted to Brisbane and Melbourne city and six international flights were canceled due to the desert storm. Oversea flights were delayed for six hours, while domestic traffic got halted for three to four hours.

Even the Harbor Bridge of Sydney was completely hidden in the blanket of dust, and yachts on the harbor had a dull yellow sheen on them.

Panic hits the city
The residents felt metallic taste in their mouths after the storm subsided and many cases of breathing problems, especially in asthma patients, were reported throughout the city.

Children and the elderly were requested to avoid venturing outside as the dust was said to contain materials that could affect their health.

Even the state Fire Brigade service faced a lot of inconvenience as there were a record 10 times more number of calls from various places that resulted from automatic tripping of fire alarms and smoke detectors.

Tanya Ferguson, a local resident says, “It was like waking up to see that Armageddon is upon us. The sky was bathed in a red hue.

“I must say that the thought did cross my mind that either my eyes were playing up on me, that something catastrophic had occurred... or that it was something meteorological.”

“It was like being on Mars. I haven't been there, obviously, but I imagine that's what the sky would look like,” she continues.

The weather department has forecasted the storm to weaken by late Wednesday evening.