'17 minutes that felt eternal': Hail storm damages dozens of cars on QEII
CTV
Monday night, Gibran Marquez made a phone call he never wants to make again. Marquez was one of many people trapped in a massive hail storm on Monday evening near Red Deer, which left dozens of vehicles damaged and drivers and passengers bruised and confused along the side of the QEII highway.
Monday night, Gibran Marquez made a phone call he never wants to make again.
Marquez was one of many people trapped in a massive hail storm on Monday evening near Red Deer, which left dozens of vehicles damaged and drivers and passengers bruised and confused along the side of the QEII highway.
As the hail pelted down, shattering all the windows, he said he wasn’t sure if he would make it home.
“It was one of those things where I ended up calling my parents,” he adds. “I’m like, ‘I love you guys. I don’t know what’s about to happen.’”
Leaving Calgary the weather was beautiful, Marquez said, and he and his friends started the drive back to Drayton Valley around 5 p.m.
“Creeping up on Red Deer there, the clouds started getting a little fast, a little spinny. It was still sunny though,” Marquez said. “All of a sudden a tornado warning comes in on my phone.”
“Right off the bat, complete change of the sky. Things started moving faster, the sky started getting darker. What made us pull over though, was one ball of hail that was half the size of my head.”
