CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Last Wednesday afternoon, around 4:00 p.m., is the moment all hail broke loose in Downtown Clarksville.
"It came in two waves," explained John Taunton, an engineer who works downtown.
"It started to hail, like pea-sized hail," recounted Diane Adkins, who works at Legends Bank's downtown location.
Only moments later, small hail turned into massive chunks.
"Seeing golf ball-sized hail come down is, it’s weird man," said Teilor Bischoff, another Legends Bank employee.
"Some of them were so big they sounded like gunshots hitting the cars," said Adkins. "We’re all just standing there going 'oh no, my poor car, my poor car.' But there was nothing we could do."
Diane had just purchased her Cadillac last year. Now, it's covered in dents, dings and scratches.
"I’m getting ready to retire, so this was my retirement car. Planned to have it for a long time, and it was really disheartening and heartbreaking," she said. "It is a little sad to see it happen to something you worked so hard for."
In addition to dents, Bischoff's truck received several cracks in the windshield. His insurance company estimates the damages over $7,000.
"The hood and roof have to be replaced, the windshield has to be replaced," he said. "To watch it just get hammered with hail is aggravating, to say the least."
Taunton is worried his older pickup truck will end up being totaled.
"You have vehicles you’ve had paid for for a long time, and you really don’t want to go out and buy a new vehicle right now," he said. "It looks more like a golf ball now than it does a truck."
With so many cars downtown impacted, there already appears to be a backlog at dealerships and body shops. One Clarksvillian told us they were told by a repair shop that they couldn't get to her parent's cars until July.
"I haven’t even started, to be honest with you," said Bischoff. "I’ve already heard nightmares that it’s going to be weeks, if not months, before someone can get seen."
Thankfully, all three of the individuals we spoke to are still mechanically sound, which is a good thing.
"It can drive all day, no problems at all, it’s just when you drive up, everybody goes hey you must have been in the hail storm the other day," said Taunton.
"You really can’t help it. It’s just the luck of the draw," said Bischoff.
Because even though the storm only took minutes to hit, the recovery is poised to last much longer.
"A waiting game now, so get in line with everyone else to get their vehicles fixed," said Taunton.
"I don’t usually drive it all banged up, but yea, until it’s fixed it’ll just be a banged up ride," said Adkins.
To make matters worse, many of the downtown car lots experienced damage too. So they may be prioritizing fixing their own vehicles, and in the meantime, don't have new inventory to sell to those who had their cars totaled.
Fostering Hope provides Christmas for kids in foster care. I'm delighted to see Fostering Hope expand this year to expand their reach to now include kids in Foster care in metro AND foster kids in East TN hard hit by Helene.
-Bree Smith
