The sand storm hit without much warning. It looked like a bank of fog was dropping down from the nearby hills. The conditions went from calm and warm to a 60mph gritty white out in less than a minute. My wide angle lens sucked in a pound of dust and needs a trip to the Canon repair shop. There were screaming girls in panic mode and guys trying to run down the stairway. The tower was well built, I discovered that dust storms of this caliber are common -an almost daily afternoon occurrence in the late summer, so I wasn't too worried about the collapse of my perch as much as I was about the sand-dust in my unprotected camera gear. I managed a few interesting storm shots as I waited out the sand blasting. After this I never left camp without goggles, respirator and protection for my camera! We had 2 more severe storms and a couple less powerful dustings before the event was over. Other than my lens damage the only other wind casualties were our shade canopy and a couple of supply tents.