Dozens of cars at Pikes Peak State College left with shattered car windows from high wind gusts

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - Whipping wind gusts across Colorado Springs left dozens of parked cars at the Pikes Peak State College Centennial Campus with blown-out windows following major wind gusts coming off the Cheyenne Mountain.

Students and staff tell KRDO13 that they received an email from college officials because of how widespread the damage was, that anyone parked in the D Lot on campus should check their vehicles.

Many students filed out after their class was over to check and see if they had hopefully not fallen victim. When KRDO13 was on scene around 1:50 p.m. a crew on scene could count around 20 cars with shattered windows.

Some say they had heard a dust devil had formed, kicking up rocks that may have hit people's vehicles, but there's no definite proof of what exactly caused the damages, other than the obvious massive wind bursts on Friday afternoon.

One student, Jordyn Louis, was spotted picking pieces of glass out of her car.

"Unfortunately I was one of them" the Zoo Tech major lamented about her sedan. "This was my sister's. She already has paid it off and everything. But now that her car is totaled with a window completely damaged, that's really unfortunate." explained Louis.

She was not alone, however.

A college maintenance employee who was seen using a leaf-blower to round up a parking space's worth of glass on the ground told KRDO13 the lot was much more full around 1 p.m. and a majority of the cars had damaged windows. He also used a broom to clean up smaller piles of glass.

He says that he's seen this same phenomenon of wind bursts blowing out car windows every several years near the college, but this might have been the worst example of it yet.

A tutor at the college told KRDO13 when he heard about the wind damage, he didn't even bother going to the parking lot. He said what's done is done, and he'd take care of it one way or another.

"I'll say, Mother Nature is, like, pretty strong." said Ben Lawson "[Just] filing insurance claims, and duct taping it until then," he added.

Some people were seen trying to tend to the now gaping hole in their car doors, using plastic sheets, or saran wrap.

That college employee stated that if you're ever in an area with high to severe wind warnings, you should crack your windows just a bit, to relieve the pressure.

Many cars who did not have broken windows in the D Lot, had their windows opened just a tad, although it's unclear if they did that before or after the emailed warning by the college.