Pounded by Ma Nature

[montmil]

Massive hail storm struck our city mid-afternoon Thursday. Hail stones up the baseball-size and a bit larger pounded us twice. Winds at our muni airport were clocked at 85+mph. I had just taped over the holes knocked through the convertible top on the VW Cabriolet when the second round of hail and rain rolled in.

What a mess. Our roof is wasted. Looks like it was worked over with a 24-ounce, ball-peen hammer. Steel guttering mangled.

Cabriolet has a broken windshield, destroyed vert top and a few metal dents. The car was partially shielded by a large tree that is now missing most of it's Spring leaf-out.

Ford F150 pickem'up truck got the 16-ounce hammer treatment. Thicker sheet metal than the V-Dub.

Quickly contacted auto and homeowner insurance peeps even before the hail had ceased it's assault. First come, first served. Insurance adjusters already scheduled.

We're safe and the roof and vehicles will be repaired. Could've been worse. Cross street neighbor's roof skylights were broken away and large hail was crashing inside his home! Note to self: No skylights, ever. The counties east of us suffered even more. Besides high winds, rain and hail, a tornado played havoc in a couple communities.

These were a couple small stones. The heavy artillery didn't start landing until a few minutes later.



Felt pretty helpless watching the truck take a beating.



Taped up and tried to cover the Cabrio's roof just as the second hail storm hit.

[marcmax]

I'll take my hurricanes anytime. At least I can get in a car and leave town if I have one coming my way.

[Ed Miller]

That would probably kill a bicyclist caught in it.  Wow.  

[k_enn]

That must have been one big storm.  I even made the news here in the NYC area and was wondering how you made out.

I'll take the snow we had here this winter over the hail you got.    

[Luca]

I was pretty surprised to hear the hail went through the roof of your cabby.... until I saw a picture of the "small stuff."  I guess everything is bigger in Texas  

Good that you, the beemers, and other company are safe and sound.

[Bob_Roller]

The area is prone to these events, due to the cool dry air coming in from the Rocky mountains / high plains and collide with the warm moist air from the Gulf of Mexico .

I think Ft. Worth had a very severe hail storm about 10 years or so ago, broke just about all of the windows in the high rise buildings in the Ft.  Worth downtown area .

Glad you were inside when this happened Monte, the noise from the hail hitting must have been quite loud !!!

Don't get  much on the way of severe storms here in the low desert of Aridzona, just blinding dust storms on the fronts of collapsing thunderstorms, aka ' haboobs ' .

[montmil]

Thanks, amigos, for the good thoughts.

Already have my preferred roofing contractor lined up. Insurance adjuster due al casa on Sunday. Vehicle guy on Monday.

The hail storms have drawn many, many contractors prowling the city and trying to stake their claims on as many homes as possible. I'm sure there are some jake leg outfits that will put the screws to some unaware folks. That's a sad fact, be it with hurricanes, floods, tornados and big ice ball storms.

Texas Woman's University is near our home. My wife teaches senior-level classes there. The school went on lock-down as a way to keep students inside safe areas while the hail and nearby tornado passed on.

Bob, You're right about the damaged hi-rise in Cow Town, although the windows were actually sucked out by tornadic winds during that weather event. Just imagine plate glass windows dropping multiple stories onto the street, people and vehicles. There was a trendy restaurant on the top floor which never did reopen. Plywood covered most of the building for a couple years as the insurance carriers slugged it out.

Anyway, things have calmed a bit and the city is sweeping up. Material losses can be handled. Fortunately, there were no injuries reported... although one of those big stones grazed my punkin' head as I was attempting to hide the Cabrio under a tree.

[Justin B.]

We just got pea-sized over here.  I remember getting caught in quarter sized hail riding a nekkid Honda 450 - did not feel good...

I remember a number of years back grapefruit sized hail came through Ft. Worth during the annual Mayfest Celebration.  That was downright ugly.

[montmil]

... I remember a number of years back grapefruit sized hail came through Ft. Worth during the annual Mayfest Celebration.  That was downright ugly.

Was that the storm that took out all the glass in that Downtown hi-rise. I remember MayFest getting hammered but these storms tend to run together in my short-circuit memory.

Vehicle adjuster arrive dthis afternoon, took pics, filed paperwork from his vehicle and left me with a nice check. Roof guy arrives tuesday morning. Getting things handled without issues, so far.

[Justin B.]

I think the major "glass masacre" was the tornado that hit downtown Ft. Worth.  A friend was taking some training in a basement conference room at a hotel and he said that when he went outside for a smoke break it looked like a war-zone!

[subco]

The size of those stones are ridiculous. Where do you even take shelter if you are caught outside when the hail comes down? under a car I guess

[montmil]

The size of those stones are ridiculous. Where do you even take shelter if you are caught outside when the hail comes down? under a car I guess

The photo doesn't show the BIG hailstones that soon chased me inside. Locals posted FB pics of baseball to softball-sized muthas. Then toss in heavy rain and recorded 85 mph winds...

[steve hawkins]

Everything has always got to to be bigger in the USA  

I think stay in old Blighty....

[Bengt_Phorqs]

May 1980 was the famous "Mayfest" hail storm.  Houses on either side of me had hail stones of 4 to 5" in diameter coming through the decking.  Every tree in the neighborhood was shredded.  One extra large stone, must have been 8 to 9" in diameter, absolutely crushed the roof of my Mazda B-1600 truck.  The Fort Worth tornado of 2000 was the first time in white man's history that a tornado had hit Fort Worth.  The 40 story Bank One building had almost every window blown out or damaged.  For month after the windows were covered by sheets of plywood hence the new name "Plank One".  We had only moderate rain during Monte's storm, thankfully.

[montmil]

New roof, upgraded to an "architectural" style, is on. Rain gutter crew now on site to replace the hammered, literally, gutters on three side of the house. A bit of trim to be replaced and painted, one solar screen and we'll call it done.

Impressed with the speed of all the insurance adjusters prompt arrival, initial check distributions and quality of the repair work.

One upside on the Cabriolet's punched roof... the insurance estimated cost for top replacement is $1400.00. I had replaced the last top and pad install myself after a previous hail storm. I've already received the replacement top from the same VW vendor. Price was $179.95. That leaves a few bucks for Airhead bits. Score!

Still, the whole storm deal has been hectic and interrupted a few days at Happy Hour. Got some catchin' up to do.
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