Minnesota Town Recovers from Supersized Hail

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People in Alvarado are going through the damages left behind after yesterday’s severe weather and large hail storm.

The Minnesota town saw and heard hail the size of golf balls and baseballs falling to the ground.

KVRR’s Natalie Parsons visited the town.

Some people might run for cover but those in Alvarado yesterday afternoon took to the streets to see the once in a lifetime site.

Shadae Quient says, “It got really cold and it started raining and the big white hail started coming down and you could hear it hitting the vehicles.”

Quient and her daughters Loxleigh and Alaina collected some hail and are currently keeping them in the freezer.

Now that the storm has passed, they’re seeing the damage left behind by the storm including a broken windshield.

The Alvarado resident says, “It shouldn’t happen very often thought because it wrecks stuff.”

Garrett Setterholm came to town to help give people affected by the storm, an estimate of what the damage will cost.

Setty Construction’s Garrett Setterholm says, “Lot of shingle damage from the hail.”

Unfortunately for this house, Setterholm does not have good news.

The whole roof will have to be fixed.

Setterholm says, “Couple years from now if a house like this was left it would be cracked and deteriorating. Lot of the granular would end up in the gutter.”

Besides house and car damage, farmer’s crops took a hit from the hail too.

Greg Gust says, “A wheat field or sugar beet field getting hit by hail like this is going to lose leaves. Later on in its year in its growth, a plant may not be able to recover from it.”

Depending on how fast a storm is moving, the National Weather Service sends out warnings between 10 to 20–minutes ahead of time.

Those living in the area can be notified of the severe weather coming in a variety of ways.

The National Weather Service Meteorologist says, “Paying attention just to the broadcasting, media and internet. Checking for those outlook watches that may be out there for their area.”

A tornado warning was issued yesterday but according to the National Weather Service it never touched down.

Quient adds, “That was crazy.”

Hopefully it will take just as long for Quient, her girls and the people of Alvarado to get their community back to normal.

On average, our region sees 30 to 35 tornadoes each year.