Things don't always go as planned....20 hours of dust storm

It started last night and the winds howled around and through the apartment where I am staying in La Rioja. La Rioja had a major earthquake in the 1970's so there are very few highrises. My building at 9 stories is one of the taller buildings. The winds reminded me of my experience with hurricanes in Florida. The apartment actually has shutters similar to hurricane shutters for those of you from Florida that are familiar with them. They seal the windows, which is why it was such a surprise that dust covered the inside of the apartment. No surface was left uncovered....we have no vacuum....after a sleepless night my friend and I spent a couple of hours trying to clean up the dust. We wore masks at one point because we were coughing from the dust that was still blowing in through the windows. It seemed it was never going to stop. Finally around 5 p.m. the winds stopped, the sun was shining and except for a slight haze at the base of the majestic Velasquez mountains there were few signs of the last 20 hours of raging winds and blowing dust. We are still finding dust and I feel like I will probably bring some home with me ......My meeting with Marta did not happen because of the weather. We will head to the clinic early tomorrow morning and I plan to walk to Marta's home. Hopefully, the residents of the barrio were able to protect themselves from the winds and dust. I will find out. There are only two days left in La Rioja before we return to Buenos Aires. The time has passed quickly.

By the way....take a look at Victoria Lynn Pierce's work for more information on "Waterspout" pictured above.