Costas:

Last spring we had a similar hail storm.  When the storm was over we had
about 2 inches of hail on the parking lot outside the store where we had
taken shelter.  For about 20 minutes it was so slippery that you couldn't
walk across the parking lot.  The melting hail caused so much fog that for
about 20 minutes you couldn't see more than about 150 feet.  Many cars were
damaged, while others beside them were not.  Generally, the make of the
vehicle seemed to matter less than the vehicle's original sticker price or
the vehicle size - higher price and/or larger vehicles had little or no
damage.  I didn't see a single Cadillac or Lincon damaged, and my
neighbor's Suburban and my Expedition came through without a single dent.
Many small cars were very heavily damaged.  I'm not sure how the auto body
repairs were performed, but there was a whole industry that popped up
overnight to take care of "hail damage".

The insurance companies suffered millions in losses in auto damage, and
then the homeowner claims began, and millions and millions in homeowner
claims.  My home is about 16 miles from the point of greatest damage, and
yet we had significant damage here.  EVERY home on my street was damaged to
some extent.  ALL are having their roofs replaced due to hail damage, and
all but one will have the siding replaced (the siding looks like someone
spent a few days banging on it with a hammer).  The roof damage is not
visible from the street, so the insurance adjusters climb up on the roof to
do their checking.  Depending upon the color of the siding, the dents from
hail may not be very visible unless the light hits the siding from a small
angle, making the dents really show up.  My neighborhood used to have
aluminum siding, but vinyl siding is replacing it, as the vinyl siding
doesn't dent, and the insurance companies don't want a repeat of this
nightmare.  It is now more than 6 months after the hail storm, and the
volume of work the roofing and siding companies are experiencing means that
there is a huge backlog and many of us won't have our roofs and siding
taken care of until next spring.

If the damage to cars was that bad, you should have your home checked too.

Good luck!

John (waiting for his new roof and siding to be installed)

At 11/9/99 06:32 AM , you wrote:
>An unbelievable hail storm yesterday left about 200 dents on each of the
>aprox 600 cars in our parking ... even smashed a number of windshields
>and tail lights ... so if anyone has any kind of dent removing device
>and wants to make some quick cash, come visit our parking areas ...
>
>Costas Anastassiades,
>Athens-Greece


--------------------------------------------------------------
John Korb                            email: [log in to unmask]
Innovative Software Solutions, Inc.

The thoughts, comments, and opinions expressed herein are mine
and do not reflect those of my employer(s), or anyone else.