[meteorite-list] Ice Chunks Fall From Sky Onto Car Dealership

From: Michael Farmer <farmerm_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:55:48 2004
Message-ID: <001201c1a077$fa8bc1a0$f2d00140_at_computer>

Cool! It goes from the size of "half the size of a car" down to 2 by 3 ft.
That is one small car. It must be a SMART from Europe. :) Notice how it
discolored when melting, sounds like crap to me.
Mike Farmer
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Baalke" <baalke_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>
To: "Meteorite Mailing List" <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Friday, January 18, 2002 6:01 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Ice Chunks Fall From Sky Onto Car Dealership


>
>
> http://www.charleston.net/pub/archive/news/ice0117.htm
>
> Ice chunk falls from sky onto car dealership
> BY EDWARD C. FENNELL
> charleston.net (South Carolina)
> January 17, 2002
>
> Literally out of the blue, something dropped in
> Wednesday that froze an employee of a West Ashley auto
> dealership in his path.
> A chunk of ice, perhaps "half the size of a car" fell
> out of the sky and ripped through the roof of a repair
> service area at Acura of Charleston dealership on Savannah
> Highway. Authorities said late Wednesday that samples are
> being tested by state officials, but for now, the source of
> the frozen missile remains a mystery.
> The ice landed about 9 a.m., just missing a dealership
> employee and causing $5,000 damage to the roof and damage to
> a parked, new car, St. Andrews Fire Department Capt. Ray
> Gorham said.
> "It punched through the roof like you punch your hand
> through a piece of paper," Gorham said.
> "It had to come from high up and had to be traveling at
> a high rate of speed. It had to be a fairly large piece
> because it put a 3-foot hole in the roof," he said.
> Acura parts and service manager Mike Huggins had just
> strolled through the room when the ball of ice arrived with
> a loud bang.
> "Another minute earlier, and I would have been right
> beneath it," Huggins said. "I heard a big explosion, and as
> soon as I did, some of the roof was laying on the ground."
> At first he thought perhaps an air conditioning unit on
> the roof had exploded, but that was soon discounted.
> "There was a two-and-a-half foot by three-and-a-half
> piece (of ice) - a pretty big slab - on the floor, with lots
> of little chunks," Huggins said. "We saved a couple of
> chunks," he added.
> Though speculation was that the ice was contents of a
> leaking aircraft toilet that became frozen outside the plane
> and then fell off, Huggins said the ice seemed clear and
> pure.
> "It didn't have an odor, and it was hard as a rock. It
> looked like a big hunk of ice, some clear and some white,
> like normal ice would be," he said.
> Gorham said Acura called an insurance agent who came to
> the scene and advised that a police report would be
> necessary. The Charleston County Sheriff's Office sent
> deputies who called in firefighters to determine if the
> frosty visitor contained any hazardous material.
> Firefighters found no trace of a hazard but called
> Emergency Preparedness Department officials who took samples
> to send to a lab, Gorham said.
> Gorham said that by the time he and other firefighters
> saw the ice, much of it had melted and it looked brownish.
> Huggins said the ice became discolored as it melted and
> mixed with insulation, asphalt and rocks from the roof.
> "I have no clue where it came from," Gorham said. "My
> best guess is that it was from the edge of a meteor." He
> said he checked with FAA officials who told him there was no
> air traffic in the area at that time.
> Huggins speculated that it's possible the FAA would not
> disclose the presence of any military aircraft.
> Wherever it came from, the ice has authorities and
> dealership employees puzzled.
> "None of the guys from here, or the firefighters,
> police or EMS had ever seen anything like this," Huggins
> said. "Lots of police and firefighters came by just to have
> a look because nobody could believe that what was being
> radioed out had really happened."
> Gorham said the incident "left us all scratching our
> heads. In my 16 years of fire service, it's the strangest
> thing I ever saw."
> Huggins discounts any suggestion that anyone aimed a
> ball of ice at the dealership.
> "I don't think the Taliban can shoot it that far,"
> Huggins said.
>
>
>
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Received on Fri 18 Jan 2002 06:29:27 PM PST