Sydney dust storm wreaks travel chaos

(23 September 2009)

Travel chaos hit Sydney this morning after a dust storm descended upon a large part of Australia's east coast.

Residents of Australia's largest city awoke to find a layer of orange dust covering streets, cars and homes, with severely reduced visibility causing flights in and out of the city to be diverted or cancelled, and major disruptions to harbour ferries.

Air pollution levels were the highest ever recorded - 15,500 migrograms of particles per cubic metre - and the emergency services received a host of calls from people with breathing difficulties.

Dust storms normally occur in arid inland areas, but, following severe droughts in the outback, strong winds lifted tonnes of topsoil and carried it across the east coast. Further inland, the floating dust mixed with rain and fell as mud.