MILLER COUNTY, MO. -- The storm system that moved through Missouri Sunday caused significant damage in many areas.
Drivers on Highway 52 in Miller County pass houses punctuated with holes and cars with dents.
Though this week's storm had high winds and driving rain, it was hail that did the real damage.
"It just seemed like the sky opened and the hail started hitting,” Earl Wood said. “I've never seen hail that big, that hard, and that intense in my life."
It wasn't just houses that were damaged.
Cars, lawn furniture, even animals, almost anything left outside were clobbered.
Wood's wife said Sunday's hail storm was the most bizarre thing she's ever experienced.
"It was just a loud rumbling, loud thrill. Well different than thunder,” Earl’s wife Ruth Wood said. “It was definitely something beating on the house, and then it would slide down and slam against the house."
Wood said the hail came down so hard that it made indentations in the ground that look like deer and cow tracks.
"A lot of it was about like that. There was some even bigger than baseballs and obviously there was some smaller,” Earl Wood said. “But a great deal of it was at least baseball size."
This sized hail almost doubles the criteria for the National Weather Service to call a severe thunderstorm warning. Baseball sized hail is 1.75 inches.
Wood said a contractor estimated he had at least $20,000 worth of damage to his house and barn.
Wood's cousin was on his way home to Miller County when the storm hit.
"It had stripped the leaves off the trees. It was just like going down the road, driving through someone's yard,” Earl’s cousin Dave Wood said. “I mean the leaves were completely ditch to ditch all the way for about 1.5 to 2 miles."
Residents in Miller County are still cleaning up the hail destruction.
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