Extremely bad hail storm in Colorado Springs

On Thursday night, Pat and I were at home when a thunderstorm threatened. Our part of the city (just east of downtown) got lots of blustery winds, and certainly we saw lightning and heard thunder, but we got nary a drop of rain. We were the lucky ones. To the north, south and east of us, Colorado Springs got hammered by a violent hailstorm. The hail was tennis ball sized in some areas! My Facebook feed was inundated with laments and photos of the damage today. Cars destroyed, roofs in a sad state, windows broken, gardens flattened. My brother Chuck, who is a claims adjuster for a large auto insurer with offices in Colorado Springs, told me that there had been about 4,000 claims filed by 1:00pm. (My response was "Holy macaroni!", in case you're wondering.) Here are some pictures taken by my friend Dacia, who graciously allowed me share them, and her account of the storm. Thank you Dacia! In her words:

When the storm started I knew it wasn’t good. I’ve never heard such a loud roar interspersed with huge “thunks” against the roof and windows. Hail is a normal occurrence here, but as those big “thunks” grew louder, and coming more rapidly, my heart sank. I was on the phone with my dad and we couldn’t hear each other speak. It felt like the storm would never end! This morning I took a quick drive around the area and realized that I’m lucky my damage isn’t worse. Some people have every south-facing window broken out, dented cars, broken car windows; it’s a mess. Many neighbors were out sweeping up the debris and gathering on the streets to compare damage. My heart went out to a man who was taking photos of his home that has a For Sale sign in the yard. What horrible timing for him! Most of us here have vinyl siding, so the holes in our houses look like our neighborhood was hit with a giant shotgun blast, or we’re some kind of giant Swiss cheese display.

Dacia, I'm sorry you're house was so badly damaged! That's awful! For my local readers, if you have damage to your roof from the storm and need a recommendation for a good roofer, allow me to refer one of my oldest friends, Todd. Here's his website: www.reynoldsroofingsystems.com. When our roof was hard hit by a bad hail storm a couple of years ago, Todd and his crew took great care of us!