A severe hail storm that passed through Calgary on Saturday evening caused extensive damage in some south Calgary neighbourhoods.
“The hail stones were hitting the front window where we were standing so hard that I was scared it was going to break the window,” said Sheila Luft from her Riverbend home.
Luft watched as the hail started pelting her home and garden.
“Then it just started to pour and immediately the hail. There was very little rain. It was just a hail storm,” Luft said.
The siding on her house is punctured. The hail was so ferocious that it blew out the glass on the back door light and damaged a railing. The apple tree in her yard that was once teeming with fruit was stripped bare.
“It’s devastating, but I’m thankful nobody got hurt,” Luft said.
Ray Jabrica lives on east side of Riverbend. His entire patio roof was smashed to pieces.
“It kind of crept up on us. All of a sudden we could hear this bang bang bang and we thought what’s going on? It’s too early for fireworks,” Jabrica said.
He added it started off as dime-sized hail and grew to the size of a golf ball.
“It was really loud and a lot of pops and I didn’t think (the patio roof) would disintegrate like this,” Jabrica said.
Other homes in the neighbourhood were hit hard by the hail storm that came in from the north west.
Some cars were pockmarked, while others were spared like at Calgary BMW on Heritage Meadows where mounds of hail was cradled in netting that protected the vehicles.
Gardeners living in the south end of Calgary were mourning the loss of everything from kale to clematis, but experts say it may still be salvaged.
“I’m hearing sad stories, but by the same token I’m hearing a little bit of optimism,” said horticulturist Kath Smyth on Sunday.
“Err on the side of caution. Don’t go in and wholesale cut it back because the bed looks a little decimated. Go in and look carefully because sometimes all it takes is taking some of the damaged leaves off and then you get new growth and production off of it and it does just fine,” Smyth said.
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