SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Car owners in one area of Dilley are trying to figure out what to do about damage to their vehicles caused by a late-night hailstorm.
The golf ball- and pea-sized hail stones began raining down suddenly, just before 11 p.m. Wednesday.
Cpl. Jose Reyes of the Dilley Police Department said his office was flooded with calls from drivers on nearby Interstate 35 who were pummeled by the giant pellets of ice.
“If it would have penetrated through that windshield, we would’ve had serious injuries on our hands,” he said.
Fortunately, no one was hurt by the hail, which fell mainly on the northwest side of town, near the Hilltop area.
Downtown at the police station, Reyes said he and his co-workers got a small taste of the trouble.
“When we were coming out to go to those calls, the door just flew right open and, kind of, caught me by surprise,” Reyes said.
Back in the Hilltop neighborhood, people were equally surprised by what they found outside their doors.
Jerry Alvarez shared photos with KSAT 12 News of the hail that hit, some of it big enough to nearly cover the palm of his hand.
He spent the morning cleaning up broken glass from his weather-beaten windshield.
Alvarez pointed out a cinder block that had been split in two by the hard-hitting hail.
Many neighbors at his mobile home park also found their car windows smashed or completely busted out, and huge dings in the hoods of their cars.
Diane Acosta was left with not only damage on the front of her truck, but two broken taillights.
She said she didn’t know how she would make repairs because she had only liability insurance.