Dust devil hits pool-goers at Luxor Resort & Casino

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) - A powerful dust devil brought pool day at a resort on the strip to a halt, one pool goer captured the aftermath.

Around 2 p.m. Cesar Paez, visiting from Southern California, described a ‘mini-tornado’ had just hit the south pool at Luxor Resort and Casino. It was a dust devil that Paez said formed just over the pool and hit everything on concrete hard.

“All of a sudden when it gets to the concrete, it just went like 0-100. And it went so fast and it hit for maybe 5-8 seconds,” Paez said.

In the video Paez showed beach chairs and umbrellas had been tossed around as well as people. His fiancé, Norma Torres, was knocked to the ground.

“I have some scrapes and bruises my foot is a little bit scraped, I’ve got some bruising on my hip – I fell right on my hip and it’s a little bit swollen,” Torres said.

In his cell phone video Paez described an older couple that had been hit hard by beach chairs. Paramedics were tending to them a child which Paez said had a laceration to his head.

“The quickness of it – there was nothing we can do, there was nothing anybody can take cover or anything it happened so fast,” Paez said.

Darla Kersten, visiting from Charleston, Illinois, was in the pool at the time.

“The water started spinning, and when my friends and I saw that we turned and covered our heads like we would in a tornado drill and then I looked up and saw chairs flying – ran over to get our stuff all of our stuff was gone,” Kersten said.

A lifeguard told Kersten he’s experienced dust devils before, but never as bad as that one.

“The adrenalin was rushing and it was just crazy like we’re still kind of shook up like – what did we just witness? And people were running around saying what in the world was that?,” Kersten said.

Both Paez and Kersten said the staff were attentive and every body was just trying to help someone out.

It made for a memorable trip to Vegas.

“Crazy and I don’t want to experience that again. Just the emotions, you come off an emotional high and it’s really not a fun thing to come off of,” Kersten said.

FOX5 reached out to Clark County Fire Department to see if any serious injuries were reported.

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