rugby ball sized hail ruins food crops, injure people

[donsu]

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index.php?smp=&lang=eng


A hailstorm was reported to have caused severe destruction to coffee and food gardens and injuring several people living in an isolated area of Nupagimi near Mt Kuru situated between Henganofi and Okapa districts, Eastern Highlands province. Two community leaders reported the incident to authorities in Goroka yesterday. They are also seeking assistance to compile situation and damage reports. The pair had to travel across rugged terrains to reach Goroka to report the incident. Spokesperson and youth leader from Henganofi ward 20 local level government council Afya Afono said the destruction of property and injuries to the four people including three elderly women and a three-year-old boy was a grave concern. Mr Afono, in reporting the incident, said the three women and the child were returning from their gardening when disaster struck. “They thought it was going to rain but were shocked when hailstones started falling on them,” Mr Afono said. He added that the child upon arrival at Nupagimi village was unconscious after shivering from cold after being bombarded by hailstones. Mr Afono said it was the first time for people in that area to see ice-like stones the size of rugby balls coming down on them.

He said the child and the three elderly women were in critical conditions but were being looked after by the villagers at Nupagimi. “These remote villagers have no vehicles to transport the child and the elderly women to hospitals either in Goroka or Henganofi so they are looking after them in the village,” Mr Afono said. He added that at one point, three men came to the rescue of a woman by lifting a hailstone as big as a ‘dinner table’ that had fell on top of her house. Mr Afono, however, said many amongst the 800 people, who live in the area, escaped with minor injuries. Mr Afono is appealing to people from the area, who are living in other parts of the country, to assist them as their food gardens were completely destroyed during the hailstorm. Attempts by The National to contact the chairman of the Eastern Highlands Provincial Disaster Committee and deputy administrator John Gimisive was unsuccessful.)
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[Richard D]

1. Hail like that . . .

. . . reminds me of The Day After Tomorrow. Especially happening in a place like New Guinea.

[xchrom]

2. chicken little was right?

[catnhatnh]

3. Hmm....

Rugby ball = 10" Diameter = 522 Cu in = 2.26 gallons = 18.75 lbs per hailstone... now someone who is ACTUALLY good at this can easily calculate how you get hit by one of these and survive...I won't touch the "dinner table sized" one...except to ask how many people in a remote area of New Guinea HAVE dining room tables???

[donsu]

4. you think they dine on the ground - the article said 'table'

there was another place in the world that had coconut sized hail which is a little bigger then a hard baseball.

bigger and bigger hail is happening

ruining crops, cars, windows and injuring animal stock and humans (and wild animals - after one of these storms they found a dead fox and snake that had sheltered under a tree only to have the hail destroy it