PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Early morning monsoon storms are moving across the Valley Tuesday, sparking power outages, causing traffic delays and sparking fires.
Rain began falling before 4 a.m. and picked up again around 7 a.m. Lightning sparked several tree fires in the East Valley, and loud bursts of thunder shook parts of central Phoenix.
Arizona’s Family spoke with one Gilbert renter, who said he woke up to a loud burst of thunder and saw a palm tree on fire in his front yard. Part of the tree was charred black, and bits of bark littered the yard.
“They [Gilbert Fire] let us know there were four other fires in the area that were more severe than ours that they had to attend to. They had to get up and go. They left their fire hose out front,” he said.
“I was just about to get in the shower for work and we heard the loud bang, the thunder. I didn’t think anything of it, yeah it was loud. But then our neighbor came knocking on the door and said, ‘Hey, your trees are on fire.’ Right away, we tried to come out, put it out, but it was too high, so we immediately called 911 and they were here within five minutes, put it out in 15,” he added.
In central Phoenix, near Central Avenue and Camelback Road, lightning struck a vent on top of one home. The strike damaged the vent and left it smoking.
The lightning strike damaged the vent and left it smoking.(Arizona’s Family)
According to Arizona Public Service’s outage map, three major outages were reported in Metro Phoenix. The areas affected include:
- Indianola Avenue to Monterey Way, and 16th Street to 22nd Street
- Turney Avenue to Devonshire Avenue, and 20th Street to 22nd Street
- Beatrice Street to Van Buren Street, and 40th Street to 42nd Street
Nearly 1,500 customers don’t have power in the Indianola Avenue area.
Over 1,300 Salt River Project customers are without power from Roosevelt Road to S Longmore, and Broadway Road to the US 60. Nearly 800 customers don’t have power from Gilbert Road to 32nd Street, and Main Street to the US 60.
A ground stop was temporarily in effect at Sky Harbor Airport but was lifted before 7:30 a.m. Nearly 100 flights are delayed as of 7 a.m. Travelers can check their flight status here.
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