Giant hailstones kill 15 in central China

Netscape News ^ | 7/20/02 | Reuters

[NormsRevenge]

OUCH!!!

[NormsRevenge]

Death by Hail:

Seemingly authentic reports of hailstorms killing people have come from around the world, notably from China and India, whose populations are very concentrated. In northern India in 1888, hailstones as large as cricket balls (about the size of a baseball) reportedly killed 246 persons as well as 1,600 sheep and goats. Another storm, in western Hunan Province in southeastern China, was said to have killed 200 people and injured thousands in 1932. In the United States, eight persons were reported by the South Carolina Gazette to have been killed by a hailstorm along the Wateree River on May 8, 1784. Other North American reports of deaths from hail came from Broome, Quebec, in 1879; Uvalde, Texas, in 1909; Windsor, North Carolina, in 1931; and near Toronto, Ontario, In 1976. Only two deaths have been authenticated by the National Weather Service (formerly the U.S. Weather Bureau). The first occurred on May 13, 1939, near Lubbock, Texas. A 39-year-old farmer died of injuries received when he was caught in an open field during a severe hailstorm. More recently, an infant lying in its mother's arms was killed by hail at Fort Collins, Colorado, on July 30,1979.

[Husker24]

A half and hour hailstorm is terrible, but as far as the size of the hail goes, we have had softball sized hail in western Nebraska.

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

Hmmm i wonder NAHHHHHHHH could godlessness ? Nahhhhhhhhhhhh nevermind

[NormsRevenge]

Hey, Its a slow news day ;-\

I grew up in Minnesota in farm and lake country, we never had any hail any thing bigger then maybe small marble size.

I Feel Yur Pain .. A Fist sized hailstone will shur wreck yur day if it hits ya.

The Power of Mother Nature IS breathtaking sometimes.. literally

[jigsaw]

....saying they had only issued a warning about the storm one hour before it struck because they lacked a sophisticated radar system.

Too bad you guys don't have a capitalistic society that by now would have produced the wealth necessary to create and deploy such a radar system as we have throughout our country!

Hail to the Commies!

[Jack Black]

Naahhhh. (but my thoughts exactly)

[Western Phil]

A number of years ago we drove through Chadron, Nebr. after an early morning hail storm had moved through there. Had to stop for car parts and talked to the sales personabout it. Said the hail stones were the size of grapefruit. Must have been hard on the roofs, I said. No, they came with wind and came in the house through the windows. Sure did a job on the wheat fields. Nothing above 6" tall in the center of the path.

[Crowcreek]

", an infant lying in its mother's arms was killed by hail at Fort Collins, Colorado, on July 30,1979."

My grandparents homesteaded 100 miles from there -- Their old pickup was covered with dents from hail.

[Clara Lou]

It's a good thing they didn't have grapefruit-sized hail like Waco had about 8 years ago.

[DallasMike]

We had hail over 2 inches in diameter over my very home just a couple of months ago -- lots of it, too. It was a pretty small area that got whacked but it included parts of Irving, Las Colinas, Farmers Branch, Richardson, Plano, Addison, and north Dallas. Broke lots of windows, dinged up lots of cars, and a lot of people got new roofs out of the deal. Someone who had been without shelter could very well had been pushing up daisies. I was in a Target parking lot when the storm sirens went off.

I've seen bigger hail, too, but it's my understanding that this part of Texas is pretty in running for the hail capital of the world.

[Lower55]

In San Francisco when there's huge hail, they just bend over and grab their ankles to protect their head. They say their butt can take a serious pounding without too much damage.

[stuck_in_new_orleans]

thats idiotic, then I guess you'd say that Sept 11th was because the people were "godless
or what about the next time someone is killed in a earthquake or hurricane

[Jack Black]

I'm not condemming the Tibetans. There is nothing to condemn them for. I am certainly not supporting Chinese policies. On the other hand calls for Tibetans to rise up and fight the Chinese are ridiculous. That would result in massive slaughter and death, mostly of the Tibetans. You best not start a fight you can't win. Those who call for a war they can't win are irresponsible and not fit to lead, which is the case I would make about the TYC. Of course they are young, by their own admission, maybe they will grow out of it.

The best and only hope for a Free Tibet is a Free China.

I find disagreeable the weird sort of liberal racist fetishism (often supported by ultra-left Hollywood liberals like Ad Rock of the Beastie Boys and Marin County "religion of the month" types that brought us Rat Boy the US Taliban) that DEMANDS that China free Tibet but shows no concerns for the ongoing horror of the Chinese people themselves. After all the same evil government that is misruling the few million Tibetans who haven't moved to India, Nepal or the USA is misruling over 1 billion Chinese. Why no concern for them. Because they are "Han"?

If we all focused on "Free China" a obvious result of that campaign being successful would be a free Tibet (and a free Hong Kong, and a free unthreatened Taiwan, and probably a few more Islamic central Asian nations to deal with). If we focus on suppporting a armed struggle by a tiny Tibetan minority against the worlds largest standing military, a military controlled by the same goons who perpetrated Tianamen, the results will be predictably awful.

[Jack Black]

Sorry, this somehow posted to the wrong thread.

[TADSLOS]

That's gonna leave a mark!

[MissAmericanPie]

Job 38:22 Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail, 23 Which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?

Rev 16:21 And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.

I think we should be ready to see much more hail in the future. Think basketball size, of course it will be due to global warming, yep, global warming that's it.

[sigSEGV]

That's nothing. We get REAL HAIL here in KS

http://www.tornadochaser.com/hail.html

[Movemout]

Force eight winds are not that severe. I've seen much bigger hail but never knew anyone who was injured or killed as a result.

[LibWhacker]

Yup. I was in Hutchinson back in 1960 (or so) when it was clobbered by hail (not to mention a couple of tornados) that averaged 8" in diameter. The individual hailstones were shaped like doughnuts, except the hole didn't go all the way through. One guy found a 14-incher.

Some of my crazier friends donned football helmets and shoulder pads and went out in the middle of the downpour to catch some of the hailstones before they could hit the ground and start melting.

Nearly every roof in town needed replacing. And the cars? Forgeddaboutit.

For years afterwards, almost every freezer in town had samples for the doubting Thomases who subsequently passed through town (you know you're a redneck when you keep a bunch of 8" hailstones in your freezer for years).

Some people probably still have those old hailstones in the back of their freezers.