Can one really die from hail? I have seen pretty big ones now and then, but usually one would cover their heads with their hands at least, to make it safely through it.
There was a tornado near my village in Belgium (Hardly the land of freak weather) which was preceeded by a hailstorm. The hail was only about an inch across or so.
After the storm and tornado had gone through and we were outside evaluating the damage a man staggered into the village. He had been out jogging (Shorts and T-Shirt) when the hail fell and it looked like someone had beaten him all over his body (loads of individual Bruises, bleeding etc.).
And this was only relatively small hail in the grand scheme of things. I can easily imagine hail being able to kill someone.
9"/23cm hail would do you in pretty quick I would think. Even using my entire forearms I can only manage to partially cover my whole head. You'd be better off dropping down into the fetal position but if all the injuries were to the top of the head then it sounds like they didn't do that (maybe it started too quickly).
These people were travellers, not joggers. They likely would have had some items with which to shield their heads - packs, pans, spare heavy clothing. Perhaps they did, and there were more than 200 - the survivors making it of the pass.
I think the comments to the article draw the correct conclusion - the author mixed up circumference with diameter, and the hail would have been 'only' 3 inches. Still pretty deadly, but not quite as terrifying as being bombarded with rock-hard soccer balls.
Possibly. There exist weather modelling and prediction techniques to assess the risk of hailstorm. A typical weather agency does do that already [1].
The key challenge here would always be to inform the disconnected locals in millions within a small area or region. A lot of equations fail when you consider the population density and economics of an average or below average citizen in Asia.
