Insurance agents inundated with hail damage calls

A severe thunderstorm that produced hail as big as golf balls late Tuesday night has caused widespread damage in the Scottsbluff-Gering area. Already insurance agents in the community are being inundated with calls. John Massey with the J.G. Elliott Insurance company says most of the calls are dealing with window damage and dents to vehicles and window and siding damage to homes.

Massey said there were some commercial properties that also suffered damage. Massey said there are some early reports of crop damage, but most of the early damage reports have been localized to Scottsbluff-Gering. Massey says with the window damage to cars and homes, it would take a pretty good size stone accompanied by heavy winds to cause such damage. Massey says it is too early to place an estimate on damage.

Jeff Brock, the general sales manager at Team Chevrolet, says even with roofs over most of the vehicles, approximately fifty cars that were facing to the south and west had minor dings to the hoods.

Region 22 Emergency Management Director Jerry Bretthauer says rapid assessment teams with the CERT group will be out over the next couple days to begin assessing damage.

In Goshen County, Emergency Management Director Bill Law says there was little hail damage in Torrington, although they received a good inch or more of rain. Law believes there was spotty to moderate damage to crops after early reports of hail in the rural areas.

In Bridgeport an inch of rain was reported and there was hail reported on the northern end of town.

In Alliance they received a little over a third of an inch of rain and a little over a an inch and a third of rain was reported 9 miles southeast of Hay Springs in Sheridan County

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