Windy weather bedevils trailer neighborhood

Ed Koch and Karen Zekan

Wednesday, June 26, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

Residents of a northeast Las Vegas mobile home park were wondering today what else is in store for them this summer after a nasty dust devil ripped shingles from roofs and metal awnings off home fronts.

From Fred Rader's vantage point, the column of debris appeared to be at least 1,000 feet high when he first saw it about 2 p.m. Tuesday outside his Santiago Community property at 4650 E. Carey Ave., just off Lamb Boulevard.

"I watched it come up from what looked like Lake Mead Boulevard, pushing trash and debris several hundred feet into the air," Rader said.

Rader said the funnel traveled about 10 mph and took several minutes to get from the opening of the park at Carey through the middle of the park and out the north end into the desert.

"I grew up in Indiana, and we used to see a tornado a week during this time of year," Rader said. "This wasn't a tornado, but it made the same whistling sound as one."

Rader watched as the dust devil traveled up the center lane of the mobile home park toward the clubhouse and, behind it, the swimming pool where about 20 adults and children swam or laid out under somewhat cloudy skies, oblivious to its approach.

Suddenly it spun west away from Rader's home, ripping sections of a metal awning off a woman's residence.

"When it hit the awning, it tore it and sent huge chunks spinning in the air," Rader said. "If the larger pieces had hit anyone, it would have sliced them in two."

Huge sections of the carport were carried off down the street and into the desert. The owner of the home, which had been placed on the lot just weeks earlier, was out of town Tuesday.

Dust devils are often called mini-twisters because of the rapidly rotating column of air that whips its way over dry, dusty and sandy areas, carrying leaves and other light material with it.

"Dust devils are extremely common and routine this time of year," said Ron McQueen, a forecaster with the National Weather Service.

A wind report taken shortly after Tuesday's wind column disappeared measured gusts upwards of 33 mph, McQueen said.

Tornadoes differ from dust devils because the funnel spins at a much more violent rate and is attached to a thunderstorm cloud -- an element absent Tuesday afternoon.

The last tornado in local records touched down in the southern part of the valley on March 30, 1992, causing what McQueen said was a fair amount of damage to one house.

The less severe dust devil can still wreak havoc. A local parachutist a few weeks ago was killed when he fell into the path of one, and the columns are known to go high enough to prompt aircraft advisories, McQueen said.

Gwen Fitzer knew to steer clear of the dust devil while driving east along Carey to her Santiago Community mobile home.

"I watched it, wondering if it would come my way," Fitzer said. As luck would have it, her home was safe. Her neighbor across the street, though, lost an awning.

Ursula Miller, the assistant park manager, was working in the office when the dust devil hit.

"I was getting up from my desk to get a dictionary when I heard a sound like metal ladders falling," she said. "I said to myself, what's going on out there?"

The dust devil continued northward across the park, damaging other awnings, shattering glass and terrifying some residents.

No police or fire units responded to the scene and no injuries were reported.