Six people were killed and more than 30 people were injured in crashes when a rare dust storm swept through nearby fields and onto Interstate 55 in a rural section of central Illinois. , on Monday morning, leading to “zero visibility” conditions, Illinois State Police said.
The crashes, which happened just before 11 a.m. on a two-mile stretch of road in Farmersville, Ill., south of Springfield, involved about 20 commercial vehicles and 40 to 60 cars. , including two tractor-trailers that caught fire, the police said in a statement.
The injured people were between 2 and 80 years old, and their injuries ranged from minor to life-threatening, authorities said, adding that it was difficult to get people out of in their cars, some of which were engulfed in flames.
“It’s a difficult scene, something that’s very difficult to train for, something that we’ve never experienced locally,” Kevin Schott, the director of Montgomery County’s emergency management agency, said in a news conference on Monday. The Environmental Protection Agency has been called to handle spillage from some diesel trucks.
The dust storm came fast, creating conditions similar to a snowstorm whiteout, where visibility was greatly reduced, authorities said. They advised drivers in the region who experience any dust to turn on their hazard lights, and noted that the wind should die down around 8 p.m. Monday, according to the National Weather Service. A dust warning remains in effect for parts of central Illinois until 7 p.m.
The highway, a key artery in the region, remains closed in both directions between mileposts 63 and 80, and drivers are encouraged to seek alternate routes.
Although dust storms can occur anywhere in the United States, they are most common in the Southwest, according to the National Weather Service. It rarely happens in central Illinois, Ben Deubelbeiss, a meteorologist with the service, said.
But a dry stretch, combined with very strong winds, created Monday’s conditions, Mr. Deubelbeiss added, noting that the Springfield airport – about 30 miles north of the crash site – recorded only half of the usual rainfall for the month of April. Winds at the airport were gusting up to 40 miles per hour on Monday, he added.
Leyla Arsan, a Chicago resident, said she was driving on Interstate 55 on Monday when she started seeing dust and smoke. Despite the strong wind, Ms. Arsan said, the cars don’t appear to be slowing down, and “the trucks are fishtailing left and right.” He was finally forced to turn off the highway to avoid a crash about three miles ahead.
Similar conditions caused an eight-car rollover in Amarillo, Texas, last month, but authorities there said no one was seriously injured.
Nick Gorman, who works in Farmersville, said he saw a “huge cloud of dust” Monday morning that tasted like chalk, making him cough and obscuring visibility for miles. He said he has never experienced a dust storm warning in the village, which has a population of less than 700 people.
“August is whenever it’s really dusty,” Mr. Gorman, 22, said. “It’s a surprise for this time of year.”