After hailstorm, car owners, repair shops and insurance agents are scrambling

May 23--Biblical.

That's what Chet Elia of Elia's Auto Body called Thursday's hailstorm.

"Our lot is almost full of damaged cars," Elia said Friday. "It's like playing a game of Tetris out there, you have to move two cars to get to the one you need."

Dave Bowen, owner of KC Auto Body and Towing on Route 422 in Exeter Township, said he had about 40 cars on his lot and all of them were probably going to be totaled by insurance adjusters.

"Many have water in them from getting the windows blown out by the hail and then it rained a second time," Bowen said. "The glass and body damage is one thing but when you add water damage it gets up there."

Brian Johnson said the paintless repair guy who does work at his shop is going to be busy for weeks pulling out the dimples left on the cars brought in to his Maaco Auto Body shop on Kutztown Road in Reading.

June Houck, a State Farm Insurance agent in Shillington, said the phone started ringing almost immediately after the storm passed.

"We're had five people working the phones since 3:45 p.m. yesterday (Thursday)," she said. "It's been non-stop."

Houck said State Farm has declared the hailstorm that hit Berks a catastrophe. The declaration frees up agents and adjusters from other areas not affected by the storm so claims can be processed quicker.

"We've had hundreds of calls," Houck said Friday afternoon. "We have people standing in our lobby."

One of them was Byrle Boyer of Shillington.

Boyer said she drove her 2015 Mazda CX5 SUV off the car lot on May 8 and now it may be a total loss.

"The back window was blown out and the side-view mirrors are gone to the point you can see the wires sticking out," Boyer said. "The whole car is pock-marked."

On top of that, Boyer said she was in Wyomissing when the storm hit, arguably ground zero for the hailstorm.

"I figured I had to drive it back to Shillington when the second storm hit and all that water poured into the back of my new car," Boyer said. "The hood is so damaged it won't open."

Virginia Redding, also of Shillington, went to Houck's office with Boyer. She said her Subaru Legacy is only a few months old and the entire top surface of the car is dimpled from hail stone strikes.

"At least it's drivable," Redding said.

It wasn't just cars and houses that were damaged by the hail. Several panes on the roof of the green house at Royer's Flowers on Fifth Street Highway, Muhlenberg Township, were blown out.

"But we reacted pretty quickly and only lost one plant," said Tara Houck, a sales clerk. "But for a while there it was raining inside."

Contact Dan Kelly: 610-371-5040 or [email protected].

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