A powerful dust storm rushed into central California this week, leading to sudden low visibility that caused a large pileup on a highway and sent multiple people to the hospital.
The California Highway Patrol said about 20 cars crashed into each other on State Route 152 in Madera County as the gargantuan debris cloud rolled in.
Motorist Delissa Fulce told ABC 30 her vehicle was struck multiple times during the ordeal.
“We got hit, we thought we were OK, then we got hit again, and again,” she said. “We just thought it wasn’t going to be over. I really thought we were going to die.”
While several people were hospitalized, the highway patrol did not specify the number and said the injuries that occurred were minor.
The wall of dust also swept through Fresno, Kings and Tulare counties.
“When the wave hit, it felt like something out of ‘Mad Max,’ like everything went brown, like a sudden foggy day, but it was colored brown,” motorist Aidan Ecker, who was driving in Kings County, told SFGate.
The storm, called a haboob, is rare and caused by thunderstorm outflow winds, according to the National Weather Service. It’s most common in the southwest because of the region’s flat landscape and arid conditions, but can occur anywhere.
The rain that followed the dust storm soaked the Central Valley, meaning the area is unlikely to see another haboob in the near future.