AUTO HAIL REPAIR NEWS

By Stella Davis

Current-Argus Staff Writer

CARLSBAD — Hail measuring from marble to golf ball size pounded North Carlsbad Sunday night for about 10 minutes, causing damage to roofs, vehicles and city street lights.

North Carlsbad residents described the noise from the hail as deafening. After the storm had passed, the hail blanketing the ground looked like snow.

On Monday morning, residents were able to get a better look at the storm's damage

The city's two major car dealerships on the north side of town — Fordtown and Ross Hyden Auto Store — reported damage to their inventory of vehicles; and local insurance agencies said they were swamped with calls from customers reporting roof and vehicle damage.

"Within the first 25 minutes after opening the office, we started getting a lot of calls about residential roof damage and damage to cars," said Montgomery Insurance agent Tessa McMillan. "We don't have an adjuster on site. We represent several insurance companies and we will forward the information to them. They will set up appointments with their adjusters."

State Farm's Tom McMullan said that his office also began fielding calls from customers the minute the office opened Monday.

"The morning has started out busy and I think it will remain that way for most of the day," McMullan said. "Had the hail storm blanketed the entire city, we would have really been deluged with calls. We would have probably had to call State Farm's catastrophic team

of adjusters to help with assessing the damage. But since it just hit the north part of town, I don't think we will need the team. I think we can handle setting up appointments for people to meet with an adjuster."

Van Nunley, Fordtown general manager, said although the vehicles on the sales lot were "not beat to pieces," every vehicle sustained hail damage.

"We definitely got hit. We are still in the process of assessing the damage," he said. "We have contacted our insurance company. Once the adjuster comes out to assess the damage, we can make a determination whether a vehicle can be fixed or sold as is."

Ross Hyden Auto Superstore manager Todd Hyden said vehicles on the dealership's sale lot appear to have sustained moderate damage.

"We will have a better idea about the damage to the vehicles once our adjuster comes and takes a look," Hyden said.

Wendell Malone, area Skywarn coordinator for Eddy County, said the hail storm lasted about 10 minutes and dumped hail ranging from about the size of a quarter to golf ball size.

"It piled up an inch deep with a 6-inch drift. The hail shredded our chinaberry tree," Malone said. "The super cell thunderstorm approached the city from the southwest. The area from Church Street north really got pounded. The south side of town didn't get anything."

Malone said he received e-mails from residents who reported hail up to 2 inches in diameter in the Westridge Drive area.

One of the e-mails came from David Gordon who lives in the 1300 block of Westridge Drive.

Gordon reported: "We measured some hail up to 2 inches. The hail was very intense for around 15 minutes. We may have sustained significant damage to our gravel roof and three vehicles. We could also see very large hail about 200 yards to the south of our location, taking our street lights (out) on West Pierce Street."

Luis Camaro, city of Carlsbad public works director, confirmed that several street lights were broken as a result of being pounded by hail.

"I know it knocked out a street light on Eighth Street. I live in that area. We had marble to golf ball size hail where I live. I imagine there are several street lights that probably got broken last night because of the hail," Camaro said.

Camaro explained that the city has an agreement with Xcel Energy whereby the city pays the electric bill for the street lights and Xcel is responsible for their maintenance.

"When we have an outage, we call them and they replace the lights," he added.