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.

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

The brief ground stop at Sky Harbor International Airport was lifted on Monday evening, but delays were expected as operations resumed.