What is the impact of a dust storm?

Question

How does a dust storm effect the community?

Answer 1

we just had one yesterday...

couldn't see to drive on the highway... making it real tough for emergency services.  the only thing flying were the big passenger jets... and people who have trouble breathing Asama have it really bad....

Answer 2

Dust storms cause soil loss from the dry lands, and worse, they preferentially remove organic matter and the nutrient-rich lightest particles, thereby reducing agricultural productivity. Also the abrasive effect of the storm damages young crop plants. Other effects of dust storms are: reduced visibility affecting aircraft and road transportation; reduced sunlight reaching the surface; increased cloud formation increasing the heat blanket effect; high level dust sometimes obscures the sun over Florida; effects on human health of breathing dust especially people with respiratory ailments.

Dust can also have beneficial effects where it deposits: Central and South American rain forests get most of their mineral nutrients from the Sahara; iron-poor oceans regions get iron; and dust in Hawaii increases plantain growth. In northern China as well as the mid-western U.S., ancient dust storm deposits known as loess are highly fertile soils, but they are also a significant source of contemporary dust storms when soil-securing vegetation is disturbed.

Answer 3

It devastates crops and farming/forestry communities.