July 7, 2013 | The Extinction Protocol
A storm dumped inches of hail on Santa Rosa Wednesday evening leaving a
lot of ice and damage in its wake. The storm, which moved in from San
Miguel County, lasted for about an hour. Thursday morning, Santa Rosa
still looked like a winter wonderland from the air. Ice blanketed the
streets, parks and rooftops on the Fourth of July, the morning after the
storm that dumped 3-6 inches of nickel- to golf-ball-sized hail that
accumulated to feet in depth in some places. “It’s funny to see the
people at Park Lake all in shorts and stuff and swimming trunks, and in
the snow, it seems like,” Horacio Lopez said. Santa Rosa’s fire chief
said while he appreciates the moisture during the long-running drought,
the storm caused dangerous conditions on roadways. “Some people I talked
to were stuck for five to six hours,” Chief Gilbert Romero said. “It’s just really bad, something I’ve never seen in my 50 years of life. I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Some of the original stained glass windows, dating back about 100
years, at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church were damaged by the hail.
Resulting water damage also forced businesses to close including the
Family Dollar as people continued to shovel hail off of roofs. “We’ve
just spent the morning here trying to assess our damage,” Mario
Trujillo, the owner of the Sun & Sand Restaurant, said. “Just
looking at town, it’s just incredible. We’ve heard of carports falling.”
Roberta Blea didn’t realize her carport had fallen on all three of her
family’s cars until after the storm passed. She said the falling hail
was so loud, they couldn’t hear the carport collapsing. “I looked out
and it was just raining hail,” Blea told KRQE News 13. “I had never seen
that happen. I just never even expected this much destruction. It’s
devastating.” Forecasters with the National
Weather Service said these types of hail storms aren’t uncommon, but
that it’s rare for this to happen before monsoon season starts. –KRQE
TABER, ALBERTA:
“There’s still hail sitting around now and it’s like what, noon?” said
Gaylene Whitley, surveying her lawn. “It’s still sitting around. It came
down in buckets.” For Taber residents, waking up to snow on the lawn is
normal in the spring. But waking to snowdrifts in July has the town
speechless. Friday evening, large thunderstorms rolled into Taber, with
hail covering streets, lawns and sidewalks. Ice pellets blocked storm
sewers, flooding residential streets and sending some vehicles floating
in the water. “In some spots in town I bet you there was two feet of
water on the road. It was a lot of water and hail,” said Taber resident
Cody Cook. Taber RCMP say there were no reports of anyone injured, or
any major damage to property during the storm. Residents are left with
lawns full of mud and leaves, and of course, piles of snow. But five
blocks away from these homes, there’s no evidence of a storm at all.
Residents in the North end of Taber seem to have been hit the hardest.
One home owner said his roof is newly re-shingled, but that didn’t stop
the water from coming in. “There’s water pouring in my parent’s house.
Through the roof, through the walls, through the light fixtures,” said
Cook. Residents say in some areas, water came up to car bumpers.
Vehicles stalled trying to break through the hail filled streets, which
are now filled with people from the South end of town catching a glimpse
of the destruction five minutes away. All streets in Taber are now
clear of water, as well as tree branches broken in the storm. –Global News
No comments:
Post a Comment