8 rescued as storm hits
Published: September 5, 2003
A monsoon storm struck the Valley on Thursday evening, swamping Tempe with more than an inch of rain and sweeping a vehicle down a normally dry wash in the White Tank Mountains.
Two people in the vehicle were rescued after crawling out and calling 911 as they hung on to vegetation in the rapidly flowing wash.
“All of a sudden, a gust of water pushed us toward the side, and within 10 seconds, it was up to the window of the car,” said Jeremy Ramey, one of two men rescued from the vehicle in White Tank Mountain Regional Park in the northwest Valley.
The men were at the park watching lightning and crossed the wash to get to higher ground for a better view. The water carried their vehicle about 55 yards downstream.
Six other people were stranded on the other side of the wash until Arizona Department of Public Safety officers rescued them by helicopter.
The brief storm struck Tempe the hardest, pelting Arizona Mills with hail and flooding parking lots about 8 p.m.
“It was like the size of peas and even larger,” said Sheri Buckey, 19, who was working at Krispy Kreme Doughnuts when the storm struck.
If you enjoyed this good news Subscribe to Good News Blog
Share this
To share this simply copy and paste one of the below URL's: