Big hail slams north Lyon Co.
By Bobbi Mlynar (Contact)
Originally published 12:49 p.m., June 3, 2008
Updated 12:49 p.m., June 3, 2008
A prolonged hail storm picked a path across north Lyon County Monday morning and pelted the area with golf ball- to tennis ball-size ice balls.
“We had tennis ball-sized hail,” said Ann Birney of the Ride Into History ranch, 2886 Highway 99, Admire. “... (T)he larger ones were the kind of doughnut-shaped ones.”
The hail broke out windshields on all of the ranch’s vehicles and left the vehicle bodies with large dents. Wooden shingles on the old barn’s roof also were damaged.
“In the front yard, there’s just these little divots all over,” Birney said. “It looked like a golf ball was rested in them.”
Still, she said, the structures themselves suffered greater damage a couple of months ago, when a straight wind took out several small outbuildings.
Birney said that the duration of Monday’s storm seemed far longer than most hail storms. The hail started as tiny little balls.
“They just kept getting bigger and bigger,” she said. “It felt like it lasted forever — and for a hail storm, 20, 30 minutes is forever.”
The hail reached at least 3 inches in diameter.
“The little car, the HHR, just looks like a baseball bat was taken to it,” Birney said.
All of the vehicles at Ride Into History have vertical back windshields that were not harmed, she said; however, the windshield wipers on the back windshields all were destroyed, as were the front windshields. As a result, all of the vehicles were rendered inoperable until repairs can be made.
North of Ride Into History, along Highway 56, the storm continued to spread spotty damage.
Mike Kuhn, officer-in-charge at the Admire Post Office, said hail there was about 1.25 to 1.5 inches in diameter.
“It wasn’t real bad,” Kuhn said. “About five miles south, they really got some hail, about where the Turnpike goes through.”
Damage in Admire primarily was confined to hail dents in cars.
“A bunch of people collected it and put it in their freezer,” Kuhn said.
At Northern Heights High School, the sky just turned black, it was so dark,” said Heights secretary Becky Fisher.
The storm crashed into her 2000 Honda Accord.
“It blew out the back window of my car,” Fisher said. “I’ve got all kinds of damage ... everywhere, the hood, the roof, the trunk. Even some on the side, and you know that silver trim around the windows, it got it, too.”
The storm also damaged vehicles belonging to the school counselor and a custodian.
Fisher described the hail as golf ball-sized.
At Reading, 3-inch hail cracked windshields, pierced a tin roof and broke out a moon roof in Mary Ann Kraft’s car.
“It not only broke, it shattered it,” Kraft said; “I guess they aren’t as sturdy after all.”
Pieces of glass, as well as heavy rain, damaged the interior of her vehicle.
The storm ruined the roof at the home of Mike Hanks, south of the Reading elevator.
Hanks was not home when the storm hit.
“We found some an hour after I got home ... and they was still as big as baseballs,” he said.
Most of the hailstones were smaller, but the ones that weren’t caused major troubles.
“Where those big ones hit, there’s no doubt it done some damage. ... I’ve got a roof that needs replaced,” Hanks said. “It went through my tin roof on the garage, too. It damaged a couple of vehicles, but it didn’t break any windshields at my place.”
The hail also broke some vinyl siding on the Hanks home.
He said he was told by his insurance claims adjuster that most adjusters likely would be in the Manhattan area today, because of the storm devastation in that area. Hank’s concern, though, remains getting the roof damage confirmed and estimated, and starting the repairs.
“We tried to tarp it last night, but that’s not working very good, with the wind,” Hanks said. “If we get rain like they’re talking this afternoon, we’ll be in trouble.”
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