TEMPE, Ariz. — The City of Tempe is still rebuilding now seven months after a powerful microburst packed its punch on the city.
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Oct. 13 is now etched in Tempe history as the day this detrimental storm reeked havoc across the city.
“I remember that day very well,” Assistant Fire Chief Darrell Duty said. “This is the biggest storm in Tempe in living memory. I don’t think anyone remembers a storm this large hitting our area.”
The powerful microburst carrying torrential rain and extreme winds came down around 2 p.m. and left behind downed trees and power lines in every direction.
“Tempe was post-apocalyptic, especially in this neighborhood,” said Andrew Porwancher, a Tempe resident.
Porwancher told 12News he was at home in the Maple-Ash Neighborhood when his decades-old tree uprooted in his front yard.
“All of the sudden we hear this massive boom and we feel the house shake and we jump back into each other’s arms,” Porwancher said. “We didn’t know what happened and it turned out that this tree had blown up into the air and was fully extended over the length of our house and our neighbor’s house.”
The storm only lasted minutes, but the damage took weeks to clean up.
“These winds were raging at such extraordinary speeds that just a few minutes were sufficient to inflict extraordinary damage on the neighborhood,” Porwancher said.
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Duty told 12News the worst of it hit near Kyrene and Baseline Roads, and also, along Mill Avenue.
That’s where extreme winds ripped a section of the roof off of an industrial building and people were trapped in their apartments by fallen trees.
“We got over 230, I think it was 234 911 calls that day,” Duty said.
Both of those sites are still rebuilding as of May 26.
“Recovery is still going on. If you drive in that area, there are still tarps on roofs and repairs waiting to happen,” Duty said.
The storm that shocked so many is just another reminder that Arizona’s weather is truly unlike anywhere else.
“The sun came out relatively quickly. There was this weird disjuncture between the damage wrought on the neighborhood and the sunlight shining down from the heavens on Tempe, and it was sort of a reminder that you’re still in Arizona,” Porwancher said.
Tempe declared a state of emergency following the storm and businesses were given the opportunity to apply for disaster relief loans.
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