<p>Woke up to a hailstorm at 1 a.m. yesterday - golfball size hail and lots of it. My car is covered in pockmarks. my husbands truck also. The leaves have been stripped from the trees and are all over the ground and the roof. Bird feeders are smashed. The Irises had just bloomed and they and the roses looked so pretty and are now in shreds. H had just planted the garden - that is in shreds. We have mud splattered allover the front of the house , windows and doors and so far hosing it does not make it budge. Couple of broken windows. And a neighbor who is a roofer had a look at our roof and said it is probably a write off as well. Hopefully insurance covers most of the roof except for the deductible. Great when we are already counting pennies with DD in college. And looking at the mess - ugh - where to start. </p>
<p>There are so many damaged cars in town that they have not decided how to handle it yet. Last time our insurance co. brought in extra adjusters from out of State, rented a hanger at the airport and did a drive through - drive in the hanger - get a check. Last time the damage was more than the car was worth so they wrote it off and gave me a check. Current car is 9 years old and the repairs will probably be more than the value of the car again so I am expecting the same. Am trying to make the car last till after D is out of college so I will be driving a pretty banged up looking car for the next few years. Husbands truck is also probably worth less than the damage. So aggravating when we are trying so hard to balance everything financially right now!! </p>
<p>You know I have lived in Oklahoma 20 years and this is the 3rd car I have had and will be the 3rd to be totally written off by the insurance people. 2 from massive hail damage and 1 from a massive idiot who was not watching the road (“Ahh wus admaring that cadilac SUV and didn’t see you”) and smashed into the back of my stationary car at @ 55 mph.</p>
<p>Ok - just felt the need to vent a bit. I know lots of people have it worse with tornadoes and cyclones - it is hard to fathom how they cope with such utter destruction when it is so hard to cope with this fairly minor blip. I am just having a winge tonight and will get on with coping with it all tomorrow. You know this stuff is harder to deal with as you get older. Just makes me tired thinking about it. Actually last time we reroofed the house ourselves to save a few bucks - we are just too old and decrepid this time round.</p>
<p>Winge over. Stupid Oklahoma weather. :(</p>
<p>Sounds awful. I hope things work out reasonably okay for you. Maybe your next car needs a roof made with a layer of foam on top.</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter that others have it worse off really. You still feel the pain.</p>
<p>I’m so sorry that you are having to deal with this. It’s such a frustrating waste of time and money and resources. So much headed for the landfill that was perfectly fine 2 days ago.
If you do have to have your shingles replaced look into hail resistant ones. (Called “Class 4”). We had ours replaced due to hail damage several years ago. The impact resistant ones were more expensive but our homeowner’s insurance went down by a significant amount - insurance savings paid for the difference in cost in about 3 years. Plus if they really do keep you from having to replace the whole thing next time that’s a huge savings!</p>
<p>swimcatsmom, I have a lot of sympathy. Even if money is not an issue, dealing with such situations is a total mental and physical energy-draining hassle. When money is tight, it becomes much worse. A few years back we had freezing rain. For as long as I lived here near Seattle, I could not remember seeing anything like that. No one expected it. Our beautiful evergreen magnolia tree was a mess, a lot of branches came down under the heavy weight of ice-covered leaves. I lost quite a few of my precious, nurtured over many years plants, and many “survivors” came out severely handicapped… I had to replace my mature plants with skinny little ones, since no way in h*ll I would have been able to pay thousand and thousands for plants of the same size.
It’s OK to vent. I hope you feel a little better now. Hugs.</p>
<p>Thanks for the supporting words. I am feeling a bit better this morning. The insurance called and they are doing the drive through the hanger at the airport thing again and we are scheduled for tuesday.</p>
<p>The foam topped car sounds like a plan for this part of the world. Would make a cute cartoon - :D</p>
<p>I will check out the hail resistant shingles. Trouble is if they are a lot more expensive we just don’t have the money right now. The timing could not be worse - apart from college expenses we were already trying to juggle because I have some major dental work that needs doing some of which I have been putting off so long (I have become a bit phobic of dentists but have found one I really like) now it is urgent. </p>
<p>I will say thank goodness for insurance. I whine (a lot) about how much money we spend on insurance - between house/cars/medical insurance is our biggest monthly expense. But living where we do we have certainly needed it several times.</p>
<p>You know I love living in the States but there sure are a lot of weather related natural disasters here!</p>