'Icebergs' Float Through Armenian City After Freak Summer Storm
Cars drift among clumps of ice on the streets of Gyumri, Armenia. This is the aftermath of a combined rain and hailstorm that struck Armenia’s second city on July 13.
Central Gyumri as water levels rise and hail clumps together into ice floes
Naira Grigorian, who runs a tour company in Gyumri, told RFE/RL that the downpour began around 4 p.m. on July 13. She says that within minutes, the area near her house resembled “an icy ocean” as hail clogged drains and floated into clumps in the resulting floodwater.
A man is pulled from his vehicle by rescuers in an inflatable dinghy in video published by Shant News.
Grigorian says she saw four cars underwater near her house. But she says “rescuers and an ambulance arrived very quickly.”
The same rescue viewed from above
As videos of the urban ice floe were shared on social media, Grigorian says “people online couldn’t believe the images were real.”
Chunks of ice were left in Gyumri as the floodwaters subsided.
Although summer hail is relatively common in the mountain city, which sits at an altitude of 1,500 meters, a local meteorologist described the storm as “unprecedented.”
A detailed view of an ice chunk made up of hail that clumped together in the summer floodwaters
There were no reports of injuries from the freak storm, but the floodwaters carried tons of ice into some houses.
A man hacks into a giant lump of ice inside his home on July 14 while cleaning up after the storm.
Lilik Avagian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that the icy floodwaters “came into my house through both entrances at once.” After the water receded, she says her home was filled with a 2-meter-deep block of ice.
Piles of hail being hauled away by municipal workers on July 14 after the storm
About 8 centimeters of rain and hail – the average for the entire month of July -- fell in less than an hour during the July 13 downpour.
Clumps of ice under a railway bridge in Gyumri on July 14
As the cleanup continued and local authorities counted the cost of the damage, Naira Grigorian said on July 15 that chunks of ice remained on the streets in some parts of the city -- despite balmy temperatures of 28 degrees Celsius.