For people living in Fountain, Monday afternoon was a familiar, painful sight.
Baseball-sized hail stones pelted roofs, dented cars, smashed windows and clogged storm drains causing localized flooding for the second time in less than eight weeks.
Repairs were underway on Joe Roberts’ home Monday afternoon from the last storm when this latest storm rolled through.
“When this storm came in they (the roofers) were trying to finish up, and the storm came in and the roofers had to jump off the roof. It came in that fast,” Roberts said.
Roberts said the prior storm didn’t cause major damage to his home the first time, but Monday’s storm punched holes through his roof.
“Every time I go back up to the house I find more damage.”
Roberts said he had to replace five windshields in his cars from the last storm. He now has to do that again. He also had a rental car from the last storm and that car also experienced damage.
In addition to that, a recently restored camper he bought several weeks ago sustained heavy damage.
“I have six holes directly through the roof, three directly through the side. Every window on one side is busted out. It looks like it’s been sitting on a golf course for a couple of years.”
News 5 viewers also sent photos and videos showing damage to windows and skylights. Luckily, no deaths were reported from the storm.
“I know none of my neighbors, none of my animals, none of my family got hurt. Everything else is just stuff so I can replace it.”
Fellow resident Jonathan Mayville said he’s in the process of filing a claim from the June storm and now has to turn around and file another one.
“We got all the siding damage and more damage to the gutters, and now my truck is pretty much a mess…I feel sorry for everybody who’s going through this and just got repairs done on their house, and now they’ve got to go back and do this process again…it’s painful.”
For Nathan Van Winkle it’s emotional. He’s visiting family in Fountain.
“When it hit it was pretty reckless…on the back porch the whole awning just got completely shredded…a lot of the stuff…has been in the family for a long time, this house has.”
There’s no shortage of damage to cleanup and work to be done. Knowing the potential for more storms this week, Gerald Whitten is “going to buy tarps and cover stuff up because you can’t fix Mother Nature. All you can do is be ready.”
