"I believe it was a tornado," Lopez said in Spanish. "It was very strong. The house was shaking."

Gonzalez said she also worried that it was a tornado. Looking out the windows, it was just black.

Austin Sierra, 11, said the hailstones were as big as "bumble bees. No, ping pong balls. We saw a bike. It was floating down the street."

"Trees were swaying. We couldn't hear ourselves talking. Our cars were covered with leaves. It looked like they came out of a swamp," Sierra said.

Cookie the cocker spaniel cried and barked through the seemingly endless hail storm, said Joanna Cervantes, 11.

"It just started pouring, bunches," she said.


Crews from Denver Public Works help neighbors dig their cars out from several feet of hail at S. Irving Street and Alaska Place in Denver.
Crews from Denver Public Works help neighbors dig their cars out from several feet of hail at S. Irving Street and Alaska Place in Denver. (Kathryn Osler, The Denver Post)