Hail-Choked Floodwater Pours Down Quito Stairways Like Waterfalls

Muddy water laced with hail cascaded down a concrete stairway like a waterfall as a violent storm turned the streets of Ecuador’s capital into rivers on Thursday afternoon, October 22.

X user Gigi Macias filmed the deluge in three clips, writing, “Quito reminded us that its climate is cold.” Water gushes down a flight of steps beside a flooded avenue, while slush-filled torrents race between trees and planters. A motorcyclist struggles through the fast-moving current, a city bus ploughs through the water and a white car sits stranded in the flood.

Hail began covering avenues in Quito’s center-north at around 2:40 p.m. and stopped close to 3:10 p.m., but water kept pouring through the streets, dragging parked cars several meters on nearby Luis Mosquera Narváez street.

Ecuador’s emergency service ECU 911 said La Comuna, La Gasca and La Mariscal suffered flooding and that several people were left stranded. Underpasses on 10 de Agosto Avenue and America Avenue were flooded and closed to traffic, and the Quito Metro ran only partially because of the rain and hail.

The storm came just weeks after an extreme hailstorm on October 7, when city crews cleared more than 500 cubic meters of hail from northern Quito.