One mother told how the dust storm affected visibility so much she could not see her hand in front of her face.

A towering wall of dust has rolled through metro Phoenix. Storms left thousands of people without power and temporarily grounded flights at the city airport.

A towering wall of dust, known meteorologically as a haboob, swallowed parts of metro Phoenix Monday evening, plunging the city into near-zero visibility and leaving behind downed trees, wind damage and widespread power outages.