Dust storm in Sydney

A huge dust storm happened in Sydney on September 23rd, I've never seen a storm like this in my life it was very bad.I can't imagine what happened?
I thought that it was the end of the world!
I thought that there may be an Earthquake coming!
When I woke up in the morning, I saw everything red and a very bad smell, I smelt it because I have an allergic(sinus)and also the wind was very fast.
Suddenly I remembered that I had left the kitchen window open all night, I ran from my bedvery quickly I saw everything RED .
What could I do, how did it happen?
I tried to look to the sky but I couldn't see anything and I usually hear the planes but till that moment I didn't hear anything. I told my husband the weather outside is very dangerous if this dust goes through our throat that will be very bad to our body and that's not healthy.
But that's unusual the News shoud have talked about this storm before but we didn't hear anything about it.
Then I went to TAFE there were many people with maskes on their faces to protect their lungs from this storm.
A lot of people called the fire brigade to help them and also cars were didn't appear their real colours because they were covered up with that dust.
The Airport stopped their departures and arrivals because they couldn't see anything and also the Ferries stopped too because of bad visibility.