Large chunks of ice, one of them reportedly about 50 pounds (22.7 kg), fell from the sky in this northeast Iowa city, smashing through a woman's roof and tearing through nearby trees.Authorities were unsure of the ice's origin but have theorized the chunks either fell from an airplane or naturally accumulated high in the atmosphere -- both rare occurrences.
"It sounded like a bomb!" 78-year-old Jan Kenkel said. She said she was standing in her kitchen when an ice chunk crashed through her roof at about 5:30 a.m. Thursday. "I jumped about a foot!"
She traced the damage to her television room, where she found a messy pile of insulation, bits of ceiling, splintered wood and about 50 pounds (22.7 kg) of solid ice.
Karle and Mary Beth Wigginton, who live a block away, heard a loud "whoosh" coming through the trees. They discovered several large chunks of ice in front of their home and some smaller ones in the yard and in the street.
"I could see where branches were shredded, which told me it was definitely coming out of the sky," Karle Wigginton said.
He estimated the original chunk of ice was the size of a basketball. "It was pure white," he said. "The main parts I picked up were very smooth."
Link & Image: CNN
Tags: Ice
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