ORE CITY, Texas — Storms were scattered across the area on Tuesday, but one particular system came with hail the size of baseballs in Northeast Texas. It was around 11 a.m. when Ore City resident Kenny Bryan said hail started pelting his home and five vehicles on his property.
His significant other Tina Seller filmed the destruction as large hail tore apart multiple trees. In her video, the property can be seen taking damage as multiple leaves fall onto the floor.
"It all came at once there was very little rain accompanying the baseball-sized hail," Bryan said. "I lost about five vehicles today."
At Bryan's home, a red vehicle he was looking to sell is now covered in dents and has a shattered back windshield. Out of his five cars, only two are insured. That red car was not insured, leaving Bryan wondering what to do with it now.
"I’ll file (a claim) on the only truck that I have full insurance on," Bryan said. "I'll just have take a loss on those other ones."
Another major impact the hail had on residents was on their home rooftops. Layne Clark with the Longview business Roof Care said he was in Ore City a week ago where they completed a project. Now, the roof they just completed was heavily damaged by the baseball-sized hail.
"Brand new roof, brand new gutters and downspouts everything's completely destroyed by hail," Clark said. "The customer had to pay their deductible and we haven't closed out that claim yet. Even though the job is complete now they've got to file a new claim, pay another deductible and the first one was not even fully paid out yet."
Clark said he hasn’t see hail this size since inspecting roofs in the city of Henderson, where he described it as the size of tennis balls.
As Ore City residents like Bryan continue to pick up the pieces, he said he's just thankful the storm didn’t threaten his life.
"We were lucky, we were just about to leave the house," Bryan said. "I mean that stuff it’ll actually kill you."