Storm damages homes, cars

Thursday’s storm brought large hail and a lot of damage to Southeastern Colorado Springs.

“Out of the blue it was tink, tink, tink, little hail and then ping pong size, everywhere, nonstop,” said Alyssa Celi, a hail damage victim.

It came in quickly and unexpectedly for a lot of people in Colorado Springs.

“My gazebo is now ruined. There is a thousand tiny skylights in there, and my husband’s car now looks like a golf ball,” Celi said.

People across the eastern side of the city are cleaning up hail, up to the size of a golf ball.

“It was pretty bad here. We thought surely there was gunfire or something,” said Kelley Montenegro, a hail damage victim.

Windows, siding and multiple vehicles were all damaged by the hail.

“I don’t think we were expecting this much damage,” Montenegro said.

Even the police cruisers were damaged. Four of the back windshields on patrol cars have to be replaced, and they might be hard to find.

“They are a little scarcer product that’s kept on hand by the company that replaces our windows,” said Lt. Catherine Buckly, from the Colorado Springs Police Department.

Buckley said every car in the police lot received some damage. For now, the department will shuffle cars from station to station.

“We’re working with our other three patrol divisions to circulate some cars around so that we make sure that we’re still fully staffed and able to respond to people’s emergencies,” Buckly said.