HENDERSON, Texas — The Rusk County Office of Emergency Management said more than 100 vehicles were reportedly damaged after Wednesday’s hailstorm. Many of those vehicles were parked at the local Walmart where Susan Bass was inside working.
“It was a little every now and then it just came down, you couldn’t even hear yourself talk,” Bass said. "I had no idea what to expect when it was all over."
Bass, like many others in the parking lot, came out to dented hoods and broken windshields
“I see that I have holes in my back windshield and my mirror is messed up and I have dents in my car,” Bass said.
She had just replaced her front windshield on Tuesday after it was hit by a rock. Now she’s going to have to replace the back windshield as well.
“Now I have to get the back windshield fixed,” Bass said.
Video shared with CBS19 by Rusk County Sherriff Johnwayne Valdez shows hail falling at the Rusk County Sheriff’s Office where he said multiple patrol cars were damaged.
“All but 12 cars that were here sustained damage including my own. No windshield damage and no glass damage, just some rooftop and some hood damage,” Valdez said.
The OEM said multiple vehicles and some roofs were damaged during the hailstorm. They estimate baseball-sized hail could’ve fallen in portions of the city.
“Windows busted out, dents all over the place. We’ve had reports of some houses that have had roofing damage,” Rusk County Fire Marshal Patrick Dooley said.
The south side of the city suffered most of the damage. Many businesses were left without power. Traffic signals were out as well.
“We’ve got a lot of lines down, a lot of reports of trees that are down on lines,” Dooley said.
In the Walmart parking lot, other vehicles fared better than others. Nancy Resendizo had just bought her new car in December, but thankfully she didn’t see major damage to her vehicle.
“The back is good, the sides are good and then all of this here, that’s pretty much it,” said Resendizo. “Dents right here, then the color came off here.”
As of Wednesday night, power has been restored to most of the city. All that’s left to do is file those insurance claims left from Mother Nature’s wrath.