Baseball-size hail was proven a reality for us recently.
When it happens, the damage can quickly become extensive. Oh, we’d experienced hail, like most everybody in Kansas, but when people reported ice the size of baseballs, we’d smirk. Not this time, because the holes in home siding and garage doors verify it.
One fellow described sound of the hail as “worse than ammunition explosions in Vietnam.” This storm was certainly a deafening battering for a short period, and we are thankful it didn’t last any longer. Pretty much, we ignored the noise initially, but when the picture window shattered into the living room, we became most aware.
Almost as fast as it started, the noise quit, but then there was a knock on the door, and a young woman was crying her heart out pleading to come inside. The storm, mostly stopped by that time other than moisture downfall, had crushed her windshield and other car windows as she was driving down the highway. Mostly, she was very frightened.
Of course, we welcomed her into the windowless room and the protection we had to offer. Rain was blowing inside, so we called the lumberman, but he already had more problems than he could handle in the rural town of under a thousand. Fortunately, another tool man had the plywood, saw and screws to close the window openings.
Afterward, he headed into town to assist others; some with as many as a dozen windows in smithereens. Next morning evaluation tallied our home siding ruined, plus the garage doors and windows, plus holes in barn roof and all tin dented. An aluminum stock trailer looked like it had the measles. Luckily, the three vehicles were under cover.
We felt fortunate after driving into town and seeing destroyed windows, shingles, siding and windshields with dents, limbs and leaves everywhere. Losses were reported at more than eight million dollars. Most importantly, no one was injured. Insurance adjusters were soon on the scene, and inadequate coverage was generally the consensus.
Hate to say this, but one’s misfortunate is another’s harvest. Carpenters, roofers, painters and window repairmen came out of the woodwork. No less than ten signs offering home repair services were posted at the town’s edge. A windshield service set up shop in a lot and soon had 14 windows to replace; one man had six cars in need of repair.
A deer was found dead in a town yard, thought to be result of the hail, and several birds were killed by the big ice. No livestock deaths were reported, but we had some
horses get out, and one horse injured, with both instances blamed on weather. Crop fields were shredded, with some total losses, others major and several replants necessary.
Thankfully, it wasn’t as bad as the warning in Exodus 9:19: “Bring whatever you have in the field to safety. Every man and beast that is not brought home, when the hail comes down on them, will die.” Worse than baseball-size is reported in Revelation 16:21: “Huge hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, came down from heaven upon men.”
+++ALLELUIA+++