Phoenix: Did you survive last night's storm? Post your pics and stories...

[vertex]

I have to say, after living here 20 years, that this was the worst monsoon I'd ever experienced. Damage seems to be all over central Phoenix and Tempe. I heard that the roof of a mid-town office tower blew off and landed on top of a light rail station on Central; anyone hear about that?

I was home in DT Tempe last night. At the height of the storm, I thought it sounded like a train. The wind was fierce, there was quarter-sized hail, the power went out, and the house started to shake with this weird harmonic dissonance, like it was possessed. The roof started leaking in 3 different places (never had a leak in the 7 years I've lived here). The sky was lit up constantly by the lightning, like a strobe.

When the house started to shake, I feared the worst; that this was a tornado (as improbable as it is for Phoenix to have one), but I really didn't have anyplace to go. I put out some pans, sat in the hallway, and tried to ride it out.

When the worst of it was over, I went into the yard to try to view the damage. I could see that the big tree in my front yard was split in half, and also noticed that the familiar horizon of trees and houses in my neighborhood was different, though I couldn't see any real details. It started to rain again, then a transformer a block away blew up. I decided to head back in again.

I got up around 6am, after little sleep, and went out to take some pics.



My driveway. How am I going to get the car through that?









Pieces of the roof from this place landed in my yard two blocks away.




The roof of the Buffalo Exchange on University, splayed across the railroad tracks.








A house at the other end of the block. Not so fortunate...






I'll try to post a few more pics when I get a chance.

[HooverDam]

These aren't my pictures, but they are of the destruction the storm did to ASUs Devil Dome:
http://s48.photobucket.com/albums/f2...ME%2008-29-08/

[Vicelord John]

we had 6 inches of standing water in the parking lot, 6 uprooted trees, 2 crunched cars, a partially blown off copper roof, and a lot of other crap. I've never seen anything like it. They said downtown we had 80mph sustained winds.

[HX_Guy]

Jesus those picture are insane! It's such a shame to see all the trees uprooted, especially since we don't have enough of them anyway.

Here in NW Phoenix, we didn't even get one drop of rain.

[nickkoto]

I hope that Devil Dome is under some kind of warranty...

[Don B.]

^ It's new to my understanding so I suppose it would be.

We missed the storm - after class let out last night at 6 pm, we drove up to Prescott so I could work this weekend. Got out just in time, apparently.

--don

[PHX31]

I took a bunch of pictures, but I left my camera at home. I'm staying at my parent's house right now because we're without power.

There were about 9 of us playing poker at my house when the storm hit. Aside from the crazy wind and rain and lightning and hail, we saw some serious shit. Transformers basically blowing up on the power poles in the alley with sparks flying. I live basically just east of where those power lines are laying in the street across 7th Street. Of course I couldn't see them fall, but we sure saw some sparks. We actually thought the market on Virginia/7th St was on fire for a while, but it wasn't. I had water leaking in through my windows, part of my roof blew off, but luckily, somehow, none of my trees got damaged. Not even the ones that were planted 3 months ago. I have no idea how they survived, especially considering the amount of huge tree branches all over the place that broke off. One came about 3 feet from landing on my friends truck.

It was weird how the first storm passed finally, there was an hour or two break where everyone in the neighborhood was outside with flash lights surveying the damage. Then all of the sudden another, slightly weaker, storm came with more hail and wind, etc. Typically that doesn't happen.

I'll have to post my pictures in a couple days. I got a nice pic of a huge tree that toppled onto this dude's car on Virginia between 7th and 3rd St. It landed smack dab in the middle and basically folded the car.

[Archdevil]

We took major damage! Some pics from Tapestry...Encanto and Central. I have never experienced a storm like this in Phoenix! I thought the windows were going to blow! As you will see...many did! Mine are still in tact. The worst thing...as mentioned...the roof membrane from the Regency House across the street ended up on the light rail lines. I took these photos around 7am this morning. It looks like a warzone and we still don't have power!

[scottkag]

Wow thats some F'ed up stuff. I'm at 5th st and Roosevelt (Artisan Village), not far from the Central carnage. It was blowing like a mofo and there was hail pelting the windows but nothing fell down and the lights stayed on. The shrubs in my yard look like an elephant sat on them and the landscaping gravel is all over the driveway, but other than that I haven't seen any drama.

Didn't look at the pool to see where the patio furniture ended up...

[alexjon]

Unfortunately, this does not look good for the light rail opening.

I'm glad you guys are okay, though! My heart goes out

[Tfom]

I'm waiting to see if any of my pics from during the storm turned out. My software that converts the raw files is only on my desktop at home and I still don't have power.

[combusean]

4th Avenue was COMPLETELY flooded--the 10" curbs or whatever they are didn't do much as there was water from one recessed sidewalk to another. Palette looked to have sustained significant damage especially to the trees in front of the sidewalk and some of their outdoor furniture.

We lost at least 2 trees in our complex, where power was out from at least 9 PM to past 3 AM when I finally went to sleep. Up to marble-sized hail at one time.

Pics are forthcoming.

[HooverDam]

Originally Posted by alexjon

Unfortunately, this does not look good for the light rail opening.

I'm glad you guys are okay, though! My heart goes out

I'd be shocked if LRT doesn't open on time. Valley Metro is under a ton of pressure to get it up and running, everyone I've talked to there says come hell or high water it'll be running December 27th.

[AZ KID]

it was truly unbelievable. This mourning i woke up and discovered the damage at my house.two huge eucalyptus trees in my back yard had fallen down lucky in the opposite direction of the house. It totally destroyed part of my cinderblock fence and toppled into my neighbors yard damaging their trees as well. Also the fag pole at the high school was litterally split in half like a twig.

Worst storm i have ever experienced

[Locofresh55]

wow....some of those pics that vertex posted looked like pics from a tornado in tx or a hurricane in FL. Wild man. I'm going up to Phoenix tomorrow so I'm wondering how bad it might be when I get up there. These pics are unbelievable but at least you're all alive. Scary stuff though.

[PhxPavilion]

I shot a few minutes worth of video of the impressive lightning in the smaller storm to the south before the shit hit the fan. Green lightning and hail is a sure sign of a tornado, both of which there was plenty of. Unfortunately the quality is pretty bad.

http://s126.photobucket.com/albums/p...t=MVI_1165.flv

This was definitely one of if not the strongest storms I've ever seen. I thought my windows were going to blow at any moment. We haven't had a storm knock out power in our neck of the woods in many years, that all changed Thursday night. I saw three seperate power poles get struck by that eery green lightning and one tranformer blew.

[PHX31]

We finally had power restored late last night. I'm still amazed how none of my new trees blew over or had limbs broken. I'm lucky all I had is a little roof damage. Here are some pics I took the next morning walking around 7th-3rd St and Virginia/Thomas.

7th St
this...


...came from this.




This tree is bigger than it looks, leaning on the building.




Again, doesn't look as big as it is, but the pulled up root structure is taller than me, and I'm 6'4".






The guy in the blue shirt owns this car, he said "I can fix it." At least he still had a sense of humor.




Power poles on 3rd Street just barely survived.


Trees were just snapped


Someone's satellite dish




Sad to see this huge (sycamore?) tree get damaged.


I put my shoe next to it for a little more reference of how big some of these limbs are that just snapped from trees.






Limb landed on a waterline/valve with the water spraying (and fallen power poles)




tree landed over the house


Very crazy stuff. I then went up to my parent's house to stay the night because I didn't have power. They live in north glendale. Anoter massive storm hit that night, causing the power to go out there. It was almost as bad (didn't last as long or quite as intense) but I saw some large trees had fallen in their neighborhood the next morning.

[NIXPHX77]

just terrible.
glad you made out mostly ok. you must live in country club park.
that looks like 8th st.
i live about 1/2 mile away to the east.
you're right - that is a sycamore tree. glad it survived, tho i hate
to see it damaged. i love that specific tree, and i planted one
in my yard because of it.

[FrancoRey]

My God. Some of those pics are unbelievable! Damage that looks like it's straight out of the Gulf Coast. And yet, I didn't hear an ounce of news about it. Hurricane Gustav and the RNC are taking all the press. Quite a shock though really, this storm obviously caused a very large amount of damage. I hate to see those huge old trees become victims of such severe weather. Especially when they aren't exactly commonplace down there.

Hope no one has too much strife or financial hardship from this storm. Good luck with the clean-up.

[DownhomeDenver]

Youre right Franco, we didn't hear squat about this devastation up in Denver. I hope you guys will get everything cleaned up quick and back to normal!