The dust storm that hit the entire east coast on Wednesday will bring work for some people - and be an added expense for others. Legions of workers are pushing brooms or waving hoses as homes and businesses cleanup the residue.
Unfortunately this phenomenon is likely to have an ongoing effect on power supplies, depending on which comes first - high wind or rain.
The ochre red colour of the dust storm was an indication that it had a high iron ore content and this dust is now thickly encrusted on power cable insulators and the thousands of transformers that reduce voltage to our homes. It would be impossible to manually remove it within a reasonable time scale.
Hopefully nature may provide high winds - which will dislodge some of this dust and reduce the hazards.
If we are unlucky, and we get rain before a wind storm that dust will become a conductor of electricity when wet - and we will see some interesting arcing and sparking in the electrical distribution system.
Unlike ordinary dust, the iron ore content gives it special properties.
The aftermath of this storm will depend on which hand of cards nature deals us next !
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