When the sand descends

While the world above The Pit is constantly covered by sandstorms, The Surface layers just beneath it have almost no wind at all. And after one of the sandstorms descended from above to The Pit in the 6th year after the Awakening, most are happy about that thing.

The storm

On the 6th year after Awakening, one day, an unseen before the phenomenon started to occur. Particles of sand coming from outside of The Pit started to descend inside through the main shaft and the holes in layers created by Beasts from Above in a form of whirlwinds. Once they touched the floor of the first layer, the wind carrying the sand started blowing in every direction from bases of whirlwinds with increasing intensity. Where two such waves met, they created whirlwinds and then connected, forming bigger and bigger sandstorm.
What needs to be noted is that the sand coming from above The Pit is sharper than sands found on The Surface layers. This, mixed with strong winds, created a force deadly enough to wound or even kill anyone who didn't manage to find any cover.

The extent of the damage

The storm lasted about an hour but it managed to descend to the first few of The Tree layers. It managed to bring destruction to many buildings (mostly broken windows but there were cases of cut roofs and at least a few buildings collapsed due to the structural damage to their support beams), natural deforestation of about 1000 trees, destruction of the property of The Surface tribes and the deaths of over 90 and wounding of 400 people. Thankfully, due to the quick warning, and in some cases, the sacrifice, of the Stargazers patrolling the highest layers, the number of victims wasn't as bad as it could be, since many people had a chance to find cover.

Prevention

While the catastrophe like this happened only once since the Awakening, many People of the Surface prepare themselves in case of another such incident happening again.
The inhabited buildings of both the transit villages and those in the few layers below them are often reinforced with materials that would prevent them from being cut again, such as metals and carapaces of Beasts from Above. In places where many people live together, wind walls have been created to break any sandstorm that would come.
When it comes to personal protection and protection of communities, a few preventive measures have been taken. First, there's a radio station with 6 radio hosts working on shifts, which asides from playing music for anyone in the range of the few layers, collect and broadcast reports from the Stargazers. Second, many tribes started creating personal shields out of Beasts, which can be used as portable covers from the wind.