Residents on Madison’s near east side surveyed damage to their cars and homes Wednesday morning after a relentless drubbing by tennis ball-sized hail the previous evening.
“I was like, ‘What the hell is all that noise?’” said John Stevenson, referring to the hail that hammered his Rutledge Street home and car as he and two scared dogs sheltered in the basement Tuesday at around 5:15 p.m.
The sunroof of Stevenson’s Mini Cooper was destroyed, and the outside pane of a skylight in his home was smashed by the beating. An outdoor plastic chair on his porch had a golf ball-sized hole in it from the storm and his mailbox was in pieces.
He had taken photos of the damage for his insurance company and was relieved that no one was hurt. “That’s what matters,” Stevenson said.
“We were at least cowering in the basement, like men!” he joked.
While Stevenson spoke with an In Business reporter in his driveway, a roof inspection company rang his cell phone offering its services.
As residents called their insurance companies, swept up debris and checked on each other Wednesday morning, representatives of roofing companies were seen knocking on doors throughout the neighborhood. Neighbors reported texts from such businesses as early as Tuesday night. Along Oakridge and Fair Oaks avenues, windows of multiple cars were covered in tarps.
“This has never happened before,” said Jesse Ketter, an electrician with Full Spectrum Solar who was inspecting damaged solar panels for a customer on Wednesday. “Thank goodness for homeowner’s insurance.”
Ketter said four of the company’s vans had smashed windshields Wednesday morning, as he and a co-worker shut off damaged solar panels on a home. The panels will need to be replaced.
Meanwhile, Sarah Fiske was raking up debris in front of her home and a neighbor’s, who is out of town.
“The whole thing came through so fast,” said Fiske, who lives near Yahara Park on Lake Monona. She was still in the process of closing windows and collecting her two dogs and two cats as the tornado sirens blared Tuesday.
She watched as the hail hit her neighbor’s roof and then ricocheted into her house. Windows on her porch and the second floor of her home were smashed by hailstones.
Several shingles from her roof were strewn in the yard, and the gutter on her garage was mangled. A round glass table on her front patio was pulverized.
In Fiske’s driveway, two cars were damaged. One, covered by an orange tarp, looked like someone had taken a baseball bat to the windshield. Glass littered the dashboard and driver’s side seat.
The hood of the other car, a Toyota RAV4, was pockmarked with nickel- and quarter-sized dents from the hail. A sideview mirror was smashed and the windshield was cracked in several places.
As she looked over the damage, neighbors stopped to check in.
The common refrain? “I’ve never seen hail like that.”
