‘Like a pitching machine’: Baseball-sized hail damages cars, homes in Clinton County

KIRKLIN, Ind. (WISH) — On Sunday, some neighborhoods in Clinton County saw hail the size of softballs.

This storm was unlike anything they’d ever seen before.

“I’ve seen hail. I’ve seen it cover the ground, but it’s only like maybe a dime or quarter size, but I’ve never seen it this big ever,” Rob Hickson, a Kirklin resident, said.

Kirklin resident Carla Gant said, “Golf balls all over. Softballs, golf balls, baseballs. I mean they were all sizes and then obviously our vehicles and home got some damage.”

People across Kirklin have started their recovery process after getting hit by Sunday’s hailstorm.

Some have spent hours trying to reach their insurance companies.

“Frustrating. All morning, and I don’t even know what time it is. 1 o’clock and I’ve been probably since 9 when they opened to try to get some help to at least some vehicles so they’re driveable,” Gant said.

Gant says she was nervous about her family’s safety.

“Scared. I had a couple of kids that weren’t home, so obviously contacted my kids just to make sure because one was driving. We were all getting ready for a funeral, so it was not a good thing,” she said.

Rob and Jamey Hickson say cars were damaged, and the hail punched holes through their outdoor table and even their plants.

Hickson said, “It looked like those hail balls were coming straight off of like a pitching machine.”

“The fire department. The weather alert sound was going on. We couldn’t get a signal on our TV, so we couldn’t catch up with what was happening around the state. We didn’t know where the size of the storm evolved, but we knew Kirklin was being pounded with this awful hail,” Jamey Hickson, a Kirklin resident, said.

Some people say luckily, they can rely on their community to find support.