Hail Storm

Woke up at 1:20 am on April 5th to the sound of hail on our roof. It steadily got louder. After a minute or two my husband came to the bedroom and said go get in the bathroom. I grabbed the baby and joined the older kids and the dog in the bathroom doorway. It now sounded like someone was throwing baseballs at our house. We all sat quietly waiting.

It didn't take long for the rain water to start coming in under the living room door. I handed the baby over to the older kids and grabbed towels to put at the door to keep the water out. While I was doing that we heard a window break. A piece of hail had busted a living room window.

Just as quickly as it started, it stopped. We called my mother in law next door to make sure she and her aunt were alright. They were fine with no noticeable inside damage. We cleaned up the glass from the window and covered the hole. Vins went outside to check for further damage but couldn't see much in the dark.

Everyone started to calm down and we all returned to our beds. A friend texted me to see if we were okay. Her dad and a friend had busted windows and damaged vehicles but no injuries.

We were just about to doze off around 2:30 am when another friend sent a text to check on us. Her family was fine but she had lost several windows to the hail and the hatch that leads out to her roof had blown off and let rain and hail into the house. She said her sister had lost all the windows on one side of her house and had hail damage on their vehicles. She also told us that the depot in town had lots of windows blown out.

The depot isn't far from the church we attend so Vins decided he better go check it out. He left and not longer after our electricity went out. The older kids came trailing into the bedroom scared about the electricity so I let them climb into bed and we tried to settle in and get some rest but the lights kept flickering on and off.

Vins came back about the time the lights decided to return. He said our church had lost all the windows on the back side - upstairs & downstairs. It was a mess but thankfully all the stained glass in the sanctuary was fine.The pastor and another church member were also there checking the damage.

We finally went to sleep knowing that we had only a few hours rest before we needed to get up and attend a church members funeral.

The next day we found out just how much damage the town had sustained. Almost everyone had busted windows, damaged cars and limbs and debris in their yards. A friend of ours lost almost every window in her house and had water damage in every room. Her yard still had hail covering the ground at 8 am. Her trees were all damaged and her trampoline was on her fence.

In the light of day we could finally see exactly what damage the storm had given us. The siding on our house has tons of hail damage. Our vehicles also have pings all over them from the hail. Not sure about the roof on the houses or barn yet. Limbs are scattered all over the yard and will take lots of time and muscle to clean up.

We are just very thankful there were no injuries or loss of life due to the storm. Property can be replaced but you can't replace your loved ones!