‘My poor car’: Homes and vehicles in Fremont take a beating from hailstorm
FREMONT, Neb. (KLKN) – Hailstones as big as grapefruits and softballs pounded homes and businesses on Thursday night.
The baseball-size hail left behind shattered windshields, damaged rooftops and broken windows in its path.
“I said, ‘What are these big ice balls bouncing up and down on my deck?'” said longtime Fremont resident Dale Lincoln. “And they were bouncing all over my new roof. I only had it on there for one day. I just replaced it.”
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People woke up on Friday morning and assessed the damage: cracked windshields and yards littered with branches.
The hail damaged Lincoln’s deck and roof, and the wind took out part of his new fence.
An employee of a local diner said he took an Uber home from work on Thursday because he wasn’t sure about driving.
As he walked into work Friday morning, he said the only thing he could say is “my poor car.”
It was a familiar scene in parts of the city, Lincoln said.
“All the trucks over here were damaged, and only one of them survived over here, only one truck survived,” he said. “They are all totaled. One guy came up to me, he says, ‘Our truck is OK; the rest of them are all gone.'”
Despite the damage, Lincoln said he’s weathered the storms before and knows the community will bounce back.
“We had a storm like this last time, and it picked up my fence in my backyard,” he said.
Lincoln said Nebraska storms are just a different kind of storm.
“These babies are tough. They come out just like that,” he said, snapping his fingers.
