You know that the weather has hit a new low when you start seeing hailstones hit the ground, but rarely is it as dangerous as this storm turned out to be. On Monday, Colorado Springs was hit with baseball-sized hailstones, which caused massive damage to the area, injured 14 people, and even killed two animals at the local zoo.
Cheyenne Mountain Zoo have reported that at their location there were both "human and animal injuries, including two animal deaths". Nine people were sent to the hospital with injuries sustained during the storm, with five others treated at the scene, according to the Colorado Springs Fire Department.
The two zoo animals killed in the storm were a 13-year-old Cape vulture named Motswari, and a four-year-old Muscovy duck named Daisy. You can see how intense the situation was in the video below, filmed from the bear enclosure:
The zoo's representatives said that they immediately rushed guests (3,000 of them) and animals to shelter during the storm. "All of the Zoo's animals have permanent shelter," they said in a press release, "but just as there were humans injured while trying to get to shelter, some animals were injured, as well."
Others in the area also took footage of what the hailstorms looked like as they hit the ground, including how loudly they were colliding with the earth:
Others took photos of singular hailstones, comparing their extreme size to baseballs, and showing the severe destruction caused in the storm's aftermath:
The zoo has now closed its facilities to the public, and is currently assessing whether it will remain closed for the rest of the week, as it is "in full assessment and recovery mode".
