It could have been worse.
That is how Shelley Batdorf, owner of Pots ‘n’ Pansies, characterized the damage a July 27 thunderstorm that went through the area and saw 3.6 millimetres of precipitation fall in various forms from rain, sleet and hail.
Batdorf said in the Gardenview area where she lives the precipitation fell in the form of rain and hail.
“The storm hit at about 7:30 p.m. and it came on pretty quickly,” she said, adding she was outside when it happened. “I heard the wind pickup a bit behind me and then it started to hail.”
The hail, which was the size of golf balls, only lasted a few minutes, long enough to do a fair bit of damage.
“The hail dinged up the plastic on our greenhouses and we will have to completely replace the plastic on three of them,” Batdorf said. “But I guess it could have been much worse. Although some of the hail actually broke through the plastic, we are winding down our season and the plants that were damaged will have time to recover.”
In addition to the damage to the greenhouse, Batdorf said her vehicle was also damaged and hail broke one of the windows in her residence.
One county resident is waiting for an insurance adjuster.
That is what Grace Huisman says she is doing following the storm that dropped golf-ball sized hail throughout the area July 27.
“There was quite a bit of damage in our area,” Huisman said, adding brisk winds took the roof right off their shed.
“We’d been watching the weather network all afternoon because we wanted to bale some of the hay on our property and we were hoping to get some work done. Despite the storm coming in we felt like we were on the edge of it and expected a little bit of rain at the most,” she said.
Huisman said the wind speed came as a bit of a shock.
“I don’t know if there was a tornado or anything but there was certainly some rotation in the sky. We could see it from the windows of our house,” she said, adding the force of the wind ripped the roof off the shed.
“The shed is completely gone now. It’s a huge mess. We’re going to have to wait for the adjuster. I’m sure they’re pretty busy though, dealing with all of the other claims. It could have been a lot worse you know. Instead of just the shed, it could have been our house too. We’ll have to fix some of the fencing around our acreage to keep the cows in and remove a few trees, but I’m glad it wasn’t worse,” Huisman said.
