A day from hail

Southwest Missouri was rocked by a hailstorm on April 28, causing extreme damage to property in the area. Measured by some to be the size of a baseball, hail stones berated cars and homes across the area.

The hail moved across central and southern Missouri, leaving countless vehicle owners in need of a tow and at least 10,000 city utilities customers out of power in Springfield.

Republic was hard hit, with many of the vehicles in the parking lot of the Republic School District sustaining damage, according to Nikki Faith, director of communications for the district.

Faith said that a few district vehicles were confirmed to have hail damage while two school buses had minor damage. One of the biggest issues, however, was damage to the roof of the school, which could cost more than $1 million to repair.

“[There is] confirmed roof damage, which is still being evaluated by insurance and roofing contractors,” said Faith. “This could be a multi-million-dollar project.”

In addition to this, Faith said that many staff vehicles were impacted by the storm as well.

“[A] conservative estimate of 500 staff vehicles [were] damaged in parking lots at all elementary schools, Early Childhood, Middle School and Central Office,” she said.

In Springfield, damage was also extensive. According to a statement from the Dickerson Park Zoo, one animal, an emu, was killed as a result of the storm while another animal was injured.

In total, more than 10,000 customers of Springfield city utilities were reportedly without power on April 28 due to the storm; that number was brought down to about 4,000 before the end of the day.

KY3 meteorologist Brandon Beck said in a statement on Facebook that this is set to be the costliest hailstorm in the area to date. 

“Tuesday's hailstorm is the worst in modern records for both Springfield, MO and Greene County, MO. It had the largest measured hail stone (up to 5 inches) and will easily be the costliest,” he said.

The city of Aurora was also hard hit by the storm, said Greg Hurd, emergency management director for the city of Aurora.

“I’ve never seen anything like that before,” said Hurd.

According to Hurd, windshield damage, roof damage and solar panel damage were extensive in the city.