By Lori EhdeArea residents are still repairing damages caused by the severe thunderstorm that blew through southwest Minnesota in the early morning hours of July 13.Bob and Barb Loosbrock are among dozens of property owners who turned in insurance claims over the past week.Their new home, built only a few years ago from what used to be Blue Mound Inn restaurant, now needs new siding after hail punctured golf-ball-size holes in the vinyl siding.Windows on the north side were also broken and shingles may need some work. Barb Loosbrock said she wasn’t surprised to see the damage after experiencing that 12:15 a.m. thunderstorm."That night we felt like we were sitting in the middle of the parking lot inside a file cabinet," Barb Loosbrock said."It sounded like someone was hitting the windows with a baseball bat. It was this loud, crashing sound."She said the size of the hail wasn’t as striking as the velocity it traveled with by way of 63 mph winds."Of all the years we had the restaurant out here, I can’t remember hail being that bad," she said."It wasn’t that we saw big hail, it was just so windy. It must have been like knife blades out there."If that wasn’t bad enough, she said the doorbell could be heard above the thunder and pounding hailstones."In the middle of all this, I kept hearing this strange sound, and here the doorbell was ringing," she said. "Maybe it was the wind, or maybe a short in the wiring … It was just ringing and ringing."She said the wind must have been particularly powerful on the south side of the hill leading up to their home along Highway 75.Just southwest of the little chapel, a tree was uprooted and moved a large quartzite boulder in the process, and one of the three signs advertising local churches blew over.State Farm Insurance Agent Pat Foerster didn’t say how many property damage claims his office handled, but he said Luverne residents on the northeast side saw the most damage, and that county residents in the Kanaranzi area saw the largest hail.He said property claims varied from roofs and siding to cars and trailers.Cattnach Insurance Agent Barb Anderson said crop adjusters will wait a couple more days to assess hail and wind damage to local fields."So far, there are a few fields where things are starting to die out, but a lot are looking better," she said.She said it’s typical for fields to look bad immediately following a storm, but accurate assessments are best taken 10 days after plants are damaged.
