The Abyei Hurricane

So... I am sitting in our office at the base yesterday. It after work and I am trying squeeze all I can out the poor web connection we have here when I hear the weather getting active outside. All the windows in the office are blocked to keep the sun out and the temperature inside down... well that's the theory anyways... so every once in a while I pock my head out the door to see what is happening. The sky to the northeast is getting dark and you can tell we are going to get some rain. Now usually the around this time of the day the winds pick up and I mean they start blowing pretty strong. Yesterday was different though, they were blowing a lot stronger than I have ever seen, in my short here that is. As I opened the door I have really hang on to it because the wind wants to rip it from my hand. My face is peppered with bits of sand and everywhere I look there is a cloud of dust in the air.

It is now about 6:40 pm and I am trying to get my last post up on the blog and now it's raining and very heavily and the wind is getting even stronger. I look outside again and everything I see is blur because there is so much debris in the air and the rain is going parallel to the ground. As I walk back to the computer the office starts to move and the roof lifts up a few inches and then water pours through the crack, the noise outside is... yes like a freight train, the build is making all sorts of noise and I trying to get logged off the computer. The roof buckles again I get the heck out of there. I step outside trying to hold on to the door and have to force it shut with all my body weight. I am instantly wet from head to toe and right through to my underwear it is raining so hard. Bits of small debris go flying by at unbelievable speeds and I make for the big tucul that serves as a cafe in the courtyard of the aluminum office structures. And believe it or not that tucul isn't even budging in the wind. I look at the office again which is a one storey building built to go up quick and come down quick and it starts moving. All the while the wind and rain are so intense and loud I can't hear myself think.

I eventually duck into another office with a few of the civil UN staff and at least now I am thinking if I am going to die there will someone there with me. These offices are all attached in rows and the second seems to be faring better than the one I was in. I remember one of my colleagues in the next office and I run out in the insanity to see if I can get out of what I perceived as a coffin. I check one door no one... I try to close the door but won't latch I leave and run to the next door and as I am making my way across the 15 or 20 feet between the two the first door I checked is now airborne and almost takes my head off. The second door is locked and I start to make my way back to office with the other people when my colleague opens the second door and we go to the safer of the two buildings.

The storm last about another 10 or 15 minutes and when it is over we step outside to much cooler temperatures and the crisis that is UN Abyei Base.