Hail storm brings hassles for homeowners, bonanza for repair shops [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]

May 18--Nearly three weeks after baseball-sized hail pelted St. Louis neighborhoods, smashing windshields and puncturing roofs, residents have filed tens of thousands of claims.

The area's two largest insurers alone -- together controlling 33 percent of the auto insurance market and 42 percent of the homeowner's market -- have fielded about 60,000 claims, suggesting the total number could rise well beyond 100,000. State Farm has received 43,000 damage claims in metro St. Louis, while American Family reports 14,600.

Thousands of people of are driving their pock-marked cars to insurance adjusters camped out in parking lots around the region. Some repair shops report a shortage of replacement glass. Contractors are walking door-to-door to drum up business fixing leaky roofs and fractured siding. Officials are warning homeowners to be on guard for scams.

Officials in Maryland Heights say they've already stopped one shady business. The contractor promised to use "30-year" shingles, but town inspectors found he was using "15-year" shingles instead, said City Administrator Mark Levin.

"Three homeowners right next to each other had signed with the same contractor," said Levin. The town brought no charges because building codes don't specify the shingles to be used, and Levin wouldn't name the firm.

The storm has created a bonanza for roofers, auto body shops and auto glass companies. Auto Glass Xpress in Affton reports 200 to 300 calls a day. The sudden demand is draining the glass supply.

"We experienced a shortage, and ended up having to wait anywhere from three days to two weeks for glass," said office manager Nikki Nowlin. "Our glass man called in favors, contacted other warehouses and did whatever he could to get the glass so we wouldn't have to keep the customers waiting."

At Dent Devil in Ballwin, the cost of fixing pummeled auto bodies is running from $2,500 to $10,000. The rush of customers is "awesome," said employee Becki Hahn.

The jump in activity in the local economy's repair sector, coupled with the temporary financial assistance from insurance companies, results in short-term positive gain, said Howard Wall, director of the Institute for the Study of Economics and the Environment at Lindenwood University. But in the long-run, those benefits "wash out."

"There is a net loss because the insurance rates will eventually increase to reflect the storm's damage," Wall said.

He said that the deductible and the amount of time it takes affected consumers to repair their property should also be factored into the net loss.

'HORSES ON THE ROOF'

Maryland Heights homeowner Dick Greenblatt knew he was in trouble when he heard a thunderous pounding at his Maryland Heights home on the night of April 28. It was so loud that his wife thought he'd fallen down the stairs. It sounded like "horses running up and down the roof," Greenblatt said. He watched the hail pile up outside and worried about the fragile Vidalia onions he'd just planted.

His flattened garden was the least of his problems. The hail left half-circle gashes in the white vinyl siding on the garage attached to his home. The cost to repair: $9,318, according to an estimate from State Farm Insurance.

Insurers often have trouble matching the color of older damaged siding, and that's caused problems after past storms. After a major hail storm in 2001, insurers said they would replace siding only on damaged sides of the house, even if the new color didn't match the other sides. Missouri insurance regulators leaned heavily on companies to change their policy.

Greenblatt likes the answer he got from his insurer, State Farm. "If it cannot be duplicated, the insurance company will cover the costs for the whole house. If it can, then they'll only cover the garage," Greenblatt said. "We're hoping it can't."

A State Farm spokesman confirmed that approach but other companies may not follow it.

Customers of American Family, the region's second largest insurer, have to buy a special rider to get such coverage. Other insurers changed their policies after previous storms to make it clear that they replace only damaged parts, says Missouri Department of Insurance spokesman Travis Ford.

Greenblat's home is one of nine on Holly Springs Drive with a contractor's sign standing in the front yard. Across the street, contractor James Smith of Olneya Restoration Group climbed a ladder to point out a roof pockmarked with dark spots. Such bruising on the roof shingles is the most common form of damage, he said.

"The granules are meant to protect the shingles from the sun. The bruises compromise those granules and soon become holes because of the exposure to the heat," Smith said. "Those holes can turn into leaks."

The cost for damages varies from "$8,000 on the low end" to "$40,000 for larger homes," he said.

The storm battered Olneya's own headquarters off Craig Road. There were 10 baseball-sized holes for ever every 30 to 40 square-feet. "Water was pouring in every office," said owner Crystal Anderson.

That left her feeling the same emotions as her customers. "It's something that's beyond your control, like a death in the family," Anderson said. "It causes undue stress and all you want to do is get your house back to its original condition."

Levin, the Maryland Heights administrator, says some homeowners are being stuck with bills that insurance won't pay. Contractors removing damaged shingles on older homes often find rotten plywood underneath. That can cost a homeowner an additional $5,000, he said.

TOTAL IT, PLEASE

State Farm says its insurance adjusters are running 700 cars a day through five damage estimation centers set up in parking lots around the region.

Don Kennedy sat in the shade at a Schnucks lot off Dorsett road as adjusters examined his black Nissan Juke, dimpled with dents and suffering from a shattered windshield. Kennedy was hoping it would be declared a total loss.

"I ... just want to get rid of it," Kennedy said. "I won't know what to do if it's fixable."

The St. Louis Better Business Bureau says it received 10,790 inquiries from customers checking on roofing contractors in the first two weeks of May -- more than triple the number in the same period last year.

The BBB said it also has 20 requests from out-of-town roofing companies, mainly from Kansas City and Chicago, asking to be accredited. The BBB turns them down because they lack a one-year performance record in St. Louis.

Big hail storms often attract "storm-chaser" contractors from other areas. BBB president Michelle Corey advises consumers not to deal with them. "Our first concern is, will they do the job? And if there are service issues later, will they come back and fix it?" she said.

Past hail storms in St. Louis produced streams of consumer complaints over inadequate insurance offers and poor contractor performance. Corey says it's too soon to tell if this storm will produce the same.

Jim Gallagher of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this story

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