Hail

Hutchinson got hammered tonight with very large hail.  Other areas in the county had high winds (80 mph) accompanying the large hail.  The Hutchinson News reports that 1000 people are without power in the city.  Some power line poles were blown over.  The News site also says that some grapefruit sized hail has been reported.  I cannot imagine . . . Many report hail from golf ball to tennis ball to soft ball size.

Hiromi was at work at WalMart when the storm hit.  Some of the skylights in the store were broken, and rain poured in and flooded parts of store.  Customers were turned away at the door to allow the floors to be mopped up.  They did, however, continue to sell plastic, etc. to people who were trying to limit further damage to vehicles and residences.

A customer walked in with a hailstone he had picked up in the parking lot.  It covered the whole palm of his hand.

When Hiromi got to his car to go home, his was one of only two cars in a row of seven employee vehicles that had the windshields intact, although his has a fairly large starburst ding.  It has quite a few dents also.

Here at home, we had no hail, and only two-tenths inch of rain.

Sheila G. bought a Mitsubishi Eclipse just last week--much newer than ours.  Both windshields were broken out and it has lots of dents.

The area of Hutchinson around the Mall, Wal-Mart, and Home Depot may have had some of the largest hail.  With many cars in the parking lots at those businesses, there was apparently massive vehicle damage.

I'm sure there will be news later of damage in other areas of Kansas.  Most of the warned area is east of us.

If you're in the roofing, siding, window, or vehicle glass or body work business,  and you live in this area, I think you are about to be swamped with customers.