By Kristine Galloway, Wyoming Tribune Eagle
and
Mark Davis and Mike Buhler, Powell Tribune
Via Wyoming News Exchange
Residents of Cheyenne and Lovell were left cleaning up this week after major hail storms tore through both communities in recent days, breaking windows, damaging cars and shattering siding.
In Cheyenne, a Sunday storm left one insurance company alone with more than 900 claims for home and vehicle damage, while in Lovell, a storm Thursday damaged toppled trees and cut power to many homes.
Elizabeth Tolin is one of many Cheyenne residents waiting to hear back from her insurance company. She moved into a twin home in the Saddle Ridge neighborhood July 11, and already is facing damage to her new home.
“Given the amount of asphalt that is on the ground and the way some of the shingles look, the roof is probably toast,” she said. “We had to quickly grab plywood and get the windows boarded up so that they’re covered.”
Tolin said she cleaned up the glass from the windows to keep her younger kids from being injured, but she can’t do much else.
“They tell you not to move anything or start cleanup until you have the adjustor come out and look at your property, so they can do an actual full assessment of the damage,” she said.
State Farm Insurance put out a news release Monday that advised its clients to make reasonable repairs through a reputable contractor, but to save all receipts for possible reimbursement.
The release also cautioned residents to watch out for door-to-door sales tactics, promised discounts, insistence on larger deposits or cash payments in full, requests for building permits and unwillingness to provide local contact information.
Jeanine West, director of the Cheyenne/Laramie County Emergency Management Agency, said the Cheyenne/Laramie County Emergency Management Agency teamed up with Laramie County Fire District 2 and Cheyenne Fire and Rescue to help residents board up broken windows.
Tolin said she was impressed by how many of her neighbors helped each other with repairs Sunday night.
“Everybody was helping people sweep out driveways and hang up wood where they could,” she said.
The situation is similar in Lovell after a severe thunderstorm roared through the town and northern Big Horn County on Thursday evening.
The storm tore through Lovell with golfball-sized hail and straight-line winds that peaked at 59 miles per hour, while Cowley recorded a 62-mile-per-hour gust, according to the National Weather Service.
Chris Hattings, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Riverton, said the windblown hail did the bulk of the damage in Lovell.
“It looks like it was probably the most intense storm that Big Horn County has seen this year, at least in a populated area,” Hattings said. “When you have a combination of 60-70 mile-per-hour winds and windblown hail, bad things happen usually.”
Stephen Fowler, owner of Thunder Basin Construction and Tree Service, spent the next day boarding up windows in his properties and running a crew that was removing several trees for customers.
Area dentist Scott Welch took major damage to his home, vehicles and lost the front window to his office in Lovell.
“The window just exploded,” Welch said.
Like many buildings and homes in Lovell, Welch’s home was covered in damage. The hail ripped through siding and stripped paint off a metal door on the north side of his home. A large tree in his backyard just missed damaging the back of his house when it was uprooted by the strong winds.
After the storm, crews from Big Horn Rural Electric and Rocky Mountain Power worked throughout Thursday night to restore power, though there were still power outages in some areas on Friday.
“As we continue to clean-up and assess the damage from [Thursday’s] storm, we have witnessed mass amounts [of] community support that make us proud to live in such a great state,” Big Horn County Emergency Management said in a Facebook post on Friday morning. “So far, we have received support from private businesses, municipalities, state agencies, and the great citizens of Lovell and our surrounding area.”