Hail Storm - October, 5 2004

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This is the most violent act of nature I have ever witnessed. Below I am going to write down the events as I saw them.

The storm
On October 5th, 2004 at about 2:30pm it started to rain. Shortly there after, it started to lightly hail. The hail stones were about as big as peas and soon there was the occasional hard thump of a larger stone, lets say the size of a quarter. This part lasted about 20 minutes, then it died down and just rained. That only lasted about one minute and then it really started to hail. But the size was still that of peas. Next came the fun part. We all watched as the peas grew to the size of golf balls. Now every hail stone was larger than a quarter and just pounding everything relentlessly. Then the hail got even bigger and now some of the stones were the size of baseballs. I could see that there were many cars without back windows and yet the hail just kept coming. From the time when the hail was the size of golf balls until it finally stopped, about 30 minutes had passed. Then the sun came out and the rain mostly stopped ... it was like a dream ... then we awoke.

The damage to my Jeep
The first thing I did after the hail stopped was go check on my Jeep. At first glance everything looked very bad. The hood and fenders were dimpled like a golf ball and the marker lights on the front were broken out. Then I surveyed the glass and found that it was all there and all unbroken. The fiberglass hardtop also looked fine. After a closer examination, the list of damage is: hood and fender area badly beat up, marker lights broken, gas cap broken, rear taillight housing broken, and hardtop has many cracks. All in all, my Jeep faired better than nearly all other cars at Tech.

The damage to my 1947 Willys
One shallow, hardly noticable dent.

The damage in general
It seems that nearly all of Socorro was hit by hail but most of the damage was done close Tech and the surrounding areas. After the hail stopped and we started looking at all the damage done, it became apparent that nothing escaped this act of nature. Every vehicle, every building and even the golf course are all very badly damaged.

In regards to vehicles close to or on the campus of Tech, I believe that about 95% of them have broken windshields and 50% have a second or third window broken. All vehicles have hundreds of dents and if a car had a sunroof or soft top, it was totally destroyed. It quickly became apparent that the newer, smaller cars received the most damage, with the Saturn cars leading the way. Although the worst dent damage I saw was on a brand new Mazda 3.

The buildings on campus are a mixed bag, with some being very badly damaged and others showing little to no signs of damage (at least form the outside). The main problem I saw was the clay tile roofs being mostly destroyed. And although there were many, I was surprised to see the lack of broken windows. Workman building (where I work) shows only small signs of the storm, with chipped wall edges, at least one cracked window and damage to everything on the roof.

All plant life on campus was very badly damaged. I think most all the trees will survive but the now lack most of their leaves and smaller branches (less than 1 inch in diameter). The grass looks interesting with thousands of divots everywhere, giving it a textured look. This brings me to one of the most damaged areas on campus, the Tech Golf Course. Since the ground is very soft on a golf course, the larger hail just made millions of deep divots in everything from the greens to the fairways to the tee boxes. I looked at the 18th green last night and the sight is amazing. The divots are 1-2 inches in diameter, 1-3 inches deep and no more than 3 inches apart. Being an avid golfer, this hurts badly.

Like the buildings on campus, the houses I have looked at are a mixed bag. My little house faired very well, with damage to the roof and a cracked window. A friends house has holes through the roof, many roof leaks, many broken windows, amazing amount to foliage everywhere, and the list goes on and on. Turns out that skylights can have a bad side. Every skylight I have heard about is broken and now those who own them have water damage too. Seems like the Socorro roofers have hit the jackpot.