TUNISIA, July 29, 1997 - The crew was enjoying a spectacular dinner-time display of heat lightning over their hotel in Tozeur, Tunisia, at the edge of the North African Sahara. The desert sky would briefly explode with a brilliant bluish-white light and then go dark again as if nothing had happened. After a few minutes, the wind started picking up, and the dining hall quickly filled as people came in to take shelter. Actors and crew joined excited children at the windows to get a better look at the wild show. Then the windows started to blow in and the rain began pouring down.

The production staff ran to their offices and quickly set up a command center, trying to get in touch with anyone who might still be on the set. The directorial staff convened an emergency meeting to devise contingency plans, as well as the next day's plan of attack. Every other department, from set decoration to props to creatures to costumes to make-up, worked quickly to assess what they could cobble together should the set be blown away and have to be rebuilt from the ground up.

Early the next morning, long before dawn, a four-wheel-drive vehicle was sent out to see if the roads to the site still existed and to assess the damage to the set. After an hour of tense waiting, a radio signal was sent back to base, where producer Rick McCallum instructed the crew to come to the set to help rebuild. The crew, travelling the rough roads in a convoy, set out into the dark, not knowing what lay ahead of them.

As the long train of headlights ventured out into the desert and illuminated the landscape, it quickly became clear that the situation was serious. The desert was actually wet. Crew members steeled themselves for the worst as they arrived at the filming site.

The Tatooine set had the feel of a post-tornado trailer park. Hundreds of costumes had been scattered across the desert floor, caked in wet sand. Dressing room tents were torn to shreds. Metal scaffolding was twisted into impossible shapes. Equipment trucks had been punctured and slashed by windblown shrapnel and debris. Droids lay all about, broken and battered like corpses on a battlefield. Plaster buildings on the set had crumbled to pieces, and the landspeeders had been bodily lifted and thrown into one another. Simply put, the set had been devastated.

Director George Lucas immediately took the Main Unit and began piecing together a shot in a relatively undamaged area. Roger Christian and the Second Unit did the same. In the meantime, Rick McCallum met with department heads to assess the damage and to coordinate the rebuilding.

Drills, saws, lumber, electrical cable, and plaster appeared as if out of nowhere. The sound of hammering filled the air, along with orders shouted in English, French, and Arabic. Wooden frames started to pop up almost instantly. Costumes and creatures were dug out of the sand, cleaned off, touched up and left to dry on whatever structures were still standing. New generators were brought in to replace the ones that had blown up. Cranes were brought in to lift fallen structures and repair damaged vehicles. Jeeps were speeding back and forth across the desert, bringing water and supplies where needed. Cameramen were helping out with wardrobe, special effects guys were lending a hand with make-up, and caterers were assisting with construction. In the end the recovery was extraordinary, and the production miraculously managed to remain on schedule.

Through it all, George and Rick managed to stay in good spirits. Rick told tales of earthquakes and floods on the set of Young Indy, while George calmly pointed out that the same thing had happened over twenty years ago on the set of the original Star Wars, and that perhaps the fact that it happened again was a good sign.

Extract taken without permission from the official Star Wars website
Pictures taken without permission from Bouzerau, Laurent & Duncan, Jody
The Making of The Phantom Menace. London, England: Random House, 1999