‘Like someone just threw rocks at the house’
Residents deal with aftermath of storm
Some of the worst damage caused by Wednesday evening’s severe thunderstorm occurred in the area around Marion Anderson and Rock Creek roads in western Garland County.
“She was at home alone with an 11-month-old,” said Serethia Crawford, whose daughter was caught in the storm. “And water was pouring in the roof inside the house, so she called us, and we took off on over there.”
Crawford’s daughter, Candice Runion, lives in the Hamilton Park neighborhood off Marion Anderson. Runion took videos of the extreme weather that shattered windshields and house windows down the entire street.
Runion’s house suffered major damage. When the hail first began, she was outside with her daughter under the eaves of her back porch, watching the hail come down.
On Thursday morning, there were newly placed signs for roofing companies and tow trucks hauling away vehicles to be worked on. Across the street and at several houses in the neighborhood, solar panels were shattered on the rooftops.
She said she kept watching as the balls of ice grew in size until a large section of her fence fell. That’s when she knew it was unlike other storms. Onethird of her large wooden privacy fence fell by the end of the storm
“There goes our pool,” Runion says in the video as her 11-month-old child’s rubber pool is pelted.
“Your poor truck,” she said to her parents who came to be with her. “There’s going to be massive damage.”
Across town, another truck was being hit by the barrage — it belongs to Adam Ussery, sport recreation manager for the city of Hot Springs. His city work truck was also hit pretty hard by the assault.
“I think all three of our vehicles will end up needing new windshields and then there was significant hail damage on the body of all three of our vehicles, our two personal vehicles and
then the work truck,” Ussery said.
Dealing with insurance phone calls all day, he said he was one of the fortunate ones on his block in the Walkway Point subdivision off Marion Anderson.
“We were on the lucky side of the neighborhood that didn’t have any front-facing windows towards the storm and we ended up not having any window damage, which some people in our neighborhood did,” said Ussery. “We haven’t been up on our roof yet, but you can see some shingles that are knocked off and then there’s some siding-type stuff that’s broken and busted up as well.”
He said the storm was nothing like he’s ever been in before, but he and his wife, daughter and dog made it out unscathed.
While his child and dog were secure in the safe room, he and his wife stayed out in the main part of the house to make sure everything was fine throughout their home.
“It was so loud on our roof that it sounded like there was holes in our roof and that everything was landing in our living room,” Ussery said.
While they are all safe, the experience will stay with them as they now deal with the longterm effects to their property.
“We just all thought, ‘Oh man, we’re getting some hail,’” said Crawford. “And the size of the balls just kept getting bigger. From little hail to marble to golf and then literally baseball. Like someone just threw rocks at the house. That’s what it looks like.”
Houses, cars, backyard furniture and more didn’t stand a chance against the force of nature.
“My car was actually there,” said Crawford. “That Cadillac in one of those videos is mine. Double sunroof, totally gone, and two windows. Dinged on all four sides. It’ll be totaled, just can’t fix it.”
But Crawford, just like Ussery, said what matters is that their family and neighbors weathered the storm.
“Thankfully there were no injuries in our neighborhood, just it’s all things that can be replaced,” said Ussery.
“But, you know, that’s just material stuff,” said Crawford. “My husband’s actually on her roof as we speak, trying to do some kind of repair just to keep more water out since we’re expecting more rain.”