Environment
In Russia, a Freak Urban Geyser Smashes Cars With Flying Asphalt
A parking lot in Smolensk was flooded within minutes on Thursday by a violent pipe rupture.
Attention to the person who parked a red Škoda outside: Please move your vehicle, it is being pummeled by asphalt chunks caused by a hot geyser erupting in our parking lot.
This unnatural disaster actually happened on Thursday in Smolensk, a city of about 327,000 souls a couple hundred miles west of Moscow. People were going about their business next to a collective-farm area when a fissure in the pavement began spitting steam. Seconds later the little perforation split open to unleash a mephitic torrent of boiling water that soared above the rooftops of nearby three-story buildings.