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Hail storms getting a bit too common in Oklahoma City

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storm May 29, 2012
This was shot about two blocks from my sister’s house, before the storm arrived and totaled her roof.

I’m sure you’ll think I’m repeating myself when I mention Tuesday night’s hailstorm in Oklahoma City. And maybe I am, if you’re thinking back to my post two years ago. Hail seems to have become an attention-getting device in my old hometown — more so than anything I can remember during all the years I lived there. Or maybe it’s just because my sister got hammered again. Hammered by hail, that is. Her roof was totaled — for the fourth time in nine years! That’s a ton of shingles, I might add, since it’s a large, ranch-style home (something to consider when comparing a ranch to a multistory home). It also stripped all the paint off the south side of the house and broke a couple of windows. I’ll leave you to imagine what such a history has done to her insurance rates, but I’m sure it’s as bad or worse than trying to buy fire insurance for a big home in the mountains here.

My other sister reported they all got into their safe room for about 15 minutes. (There were tornado alerts in the area, too.) No small feat, since my brother-in-law is in his first week home with a new Cheney-style heart pump, and they had also had a house guest with arthritic knees. The shelter is one of those steel vault things you have buried under the floor of your garage, so getting to it is not as simple as just walking through a door. The “fun” part of the story, if you can call it that, is that an elderly neighbor lady who didn’t want to be alone also showed up — bearing wine and cookies! They know how to do storms in Oklahoma.

Local news media reported one women saying, “I’m getting tired of being scared of the weather.” I can appreciate that. I’ve never stopped being glad I moved to Denver.

hail, The Village
When stuff like this falls from the sky, it’s guaranteed to ruin your day — not to mention your trees, your house, your car …
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SusanR

Susan Richards is a retired editor living in Thornton, Colo., near the family and mountains she loves. Her long-standing Pied Type blog contains some 3,800 posts dating back to 2002.

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10 thoughts on “Hail storms getting a bit too common in Oklahoma City”

      1. P.S. Love your map of places you’ve walked. You sure have covered a lot of Texas. You must come back to Colorado someday and walk some of our scenic mountain trails.

  3. It’s pretty common in KS too… hail insurance for crops is pretty high; a hailstorm with 1″ hail can beat a wheat field to the ground. Last year we had 3-4″ hail that did 10K damage to the roof, gutters and vehicles.

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    1. I still can’t get over four new roofs in nine years. There must be a giant X up there that the sky gods can see, or a hail magnet, or something. I mean, what are the odds?

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... and that's my two cents