DENVER (AP) — Residents of a small northeastern Colorado town were cleaning up Tuesday after hail the size of baseballs and golf balls hit the community, along with heavy construction equipment and snow shovels used to clear ice that has accumulated knee-deep overnight. Before.
Monday night’s storm in Yuma shattered vehicle windshields, pounded building siding and shattered many windows. Heavy rain also hit the town of about 3,500 located about 40 miles (64 kilometers) west in Nebraska, stranding some cars on the streets.
The storm hit as torrential rain, strong winds and large hail hit neighboring states as a new series of storms threatened more of the Midwest on Tuesday.
Schools were closed Tuesday in Yuma as cleanup continued. Residents were also clearing out tree branches that had fallen due to the storm.
The hail was still about a half-foot (1.83 meters) deep Tuesday morning and front-end loaders were used to move it, said Curtis Glenn, a trustee of the Yuma Methodist Church, which was damaged. by floods and hail.
On Monday evening, hailstones accumulated on the doors, making them impossible to open and creating dams that pushed rainwater into the buildings, he said.
Stained glass windows on the west side of the church, in the direct path of the storm, were broken, allowing rain to get inside, and retained stormwater was also forced into the building, Glenn said. Church members worked to move the altar, Bibles and hymns away from the broken windows to a safer location, he said.
Glenn, an insurance claims adjuster, was alerted to rain and water entering the church shortly after he managed to chase his family out of his daughter’s dance recital in the nearby town of Eckley , despite a broken windshield and hail dents “big enough to put your fist in”. .”
Glenn said the combined sounds of hail, rain and wind sounded like “a gun going off while you’re on a train.”
“It’s not something you’d ever want to see or see again,” he said of the storm, the worst he’s experienced in his years working in the insurance industry.
There were at least two reports of hail up to 4 inches in diameter, the size of a softball, near Yuma and nearby Akron, according to the National Weather Service. Most hail reported in the area ranged from egg-sized stones to baseball- or golf-ball-sized stones.
