©Vladimir Dmitriyev
In just a couple of minutes the luxury residential region of Kamenskoye upland turned into a battleground or a tornado eye: huge poplars crashed by wind, smashed fences and ripped off roofs, damaged power lines, broken gas pipelines, traffic jams and people, shocked and frightened, wondering around the ruins. All these are consequences the storm that has lately become quite frequent for Almaty. “It suddenly turned dark, the rain started and the wind blew,” witness Aleksei said. “I went to close the gates and saw windbreaks, dust, oieces of roofing and branches were flying in all directions from the upper part of the street. This is very hard to describe, it looked like the end of the world. While I was struggling with the gates, the whirl reached my house and ripped off a piece of metal fencing as if it was made of paper and broke the terrace windows. The house door flapped opened and broke the rear window of my car. All this happened in 2-3 minutes. It was very scary. But damages of my house are less than the neighbor’s.” A house under construction across the street looks very miserabe. It must be the most damaged house in this region. Ripped off roof, broken windows, peeled off foam plastic coating and scattered construction materials. One can only imagine what was happening here during the storm. Although the region is called one of the most expensive in Almaty, large elite houses are neighbored by small sun-dried lodges. Rauza Kaliyeva owns one of such small places. A fallen tree broke through the ceiling in her house and now it literaly sticks out of the roof in the middle of the room. Kaliyeva says that her teenage son was sleeping in that room when the tree fell down. He hardly managed to jump off the bed and run out. Now Rauza is scared to face the next rain that might wash away the damaged roof entirely. The woman complained about Zelenstroi, the city authority reponsible for trees and planting, who did not permit her to cut down that tree when she applied before. Now that tree fell and she needs to spend money to repair the entire roof. Management of the neighboring school will also have to spend a lot of money to repair the school’s roof. The wind scattered the parts of the roof coating around the building. Meanwhile, weather services say that such storms are normal for Almaty. They may happen once or twice a year. In case of this year this means that the nature has already fulfilled its plan for Almaty 100 percent. By Galiya Kaliyeva
In just a couple of minutes the luxury residential region of Kamenskoye upland turned into a battleground or a tornado eye: huge poplars crashed by wind, smashed fences and ripped off roofs, damaged power lines, broken gas pipelines, traffic jams and people, shocked and frightened, wondering around the ruins. All these are consequences the storm that has lately become quite frequent for Almaty.
“It suddenly turned dark, the rain started and the wind blew,” witness Aleksei said. “I went to close the gates and saw windbreaks, dust, oieces of roofing and branches were flying in all directions from the upper part of the street. This is very hard to describe, it looked like the end of the world. While I was struggling with the gates, the whirl reached my house and ripped off a piece of metal fencing as if it was made of paper and broke the terrace windows. The house door flapped opened and broke the rear window of my car. All this happened in 2-3 minutes. It was very scary. But damages of my house are less than the neighbor’s.”
A house under construction across the street looks very miserabe. It must be the most damaged house in this region. Ripped off roof, broken windows, peeled off foam plastic coating and scattered construction materials. One can only imagine what was happening here during the storm.
Although the region is called one of the most expensive in Almaty, large elite houses are neighbored by small sun-dried lodges. Rauza Kaliyeva owns one of such small places. A fallen tree broke through the ceiling in her house and now it literaly sticks out of the roof in the middle of the room. Kaliyeva says that her teenage son was sleeping in that room when the tree fell down. He hardly managed to jump off the bed and run out. Now Rauza is scared to face the next rain that might wash away the damaged roof entirely. The woman complained about Zelenstroi, the city authority reponsible for trees and planting, who did not permit her to cut down that tree when she applied before. Now that tree fell and she needs to spend money to repair the entire roof.
Management of the neighboring school will also have to spend a lot of money to repair the school’s roof. The wind scattered the parts of the roof coating around the building.
Meanwhile, weather services say that such storms are normal for Almaty. They may happen once or twice a year. In case of this year this means that the nature has already fulfilled its plan for Almaty 100 percent.
By Galiya Kaliyeva