By Marcia Love
Tompkins received its second wave of hail in two weeks, as well as other communities in the Southwest when a storm whipped through the area last week.
Environment Canada reported the area around Tompkins saw quarter-sized hail stones on Aug. 11 at around 9 p.m., while the Cypress Hills area received marble-sized hail on Aug. 10 at about 8 p.m.
Kevin Willows of Tompkins said the town was struck with golf ball-sized hail stones for about half an hour.
“The whole town was hit,” he said. “It pounded the siding on our house.”
Other residents saw broken windows, dented vehicles and trees stripped of their leaves.
Willows said the hail storm that came through the area on July 31 missed the town by about a quarter mile, but many ranchers and farmers were hit by both storms.
Michelle Hoffart of Burstall said the hail was so thick she had to stop her car by the side of the road as she headed towards the town.
“It was enough that I couldn’t drive my car through it,” she said of the dime-sized hail stones. “I had some damage on my car because of it.”
She was stopped for about 20 minutes east of Burstall while the storm passed by. The hail covered about 18 kilometres.
“In the ditch, there was about a foot of hail,” Hoffart said, also noting there was still hail in the ditches the following morning.
In Burstall, about two-and-a-half inches of rain fell within half an hour.
Jeff Hughes’ ranch about a mile west of Tompkins was pounded with loonie-sized hail stones that gave his hay and roof a beating.
He said the hail was very hard on animals that had nowhere to go for cover.
“We have some pasture land two miles west of us where there were a bunch of dead ducks lying around,” Hughes said.
Although he only lost some hay, Hughes said many farmers’ crops in the area are write offs.
“It wasn’t as bad (of a hail storm) this time, but it just seemed to hit the things that it didn’t hit last time,” he explained. “My neighbour lost a lot of windows out of his house the first time and he lost even more after this second (hail storm). A lot of Tompkins (residents) are going to have to get all new shingles, too.”
Hughes is still cleaning up flood water damage in his basement. As frustrating as the summer’s weather is for area residents, he said the flooding and hail storms are expected with the high moisture levels.
“If you want all the moisture then you have to take all the stuff that comes with it,” Hughes said.