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ga traveler · 04-15-2021, 07:58 AM

We spent a great week in Gulf Shores Al. Perfect weather. Not hot. Not cold. Then came Friday night. We were to leave Saturday. At 3am in the middle of the night a storm came in. We were plummeted by hail the size of baseballs. It took out our skylight, both vent covers and lids. Marker light, rear cap trim and tv antenna. We had to wait until it passed because baseball size hail can kill you. Thank God we left. After we left, two more waves of hail came through and totally Wiped out many of the campers who stayed.
While fleeing in 70 mph gusts we hit a traffic light and damaged the roof and front cap. The light had broke loose from its hanger and was hanging down by its cord. We weren’t able to see it in time to stop. Visibility was only about thirty feet.
The moral of the story is listen to the weather report. If we had not known more hail was on the way, the damage would have much greater.

69Stang · 04-15-2021, 08:02 AM

Glad you got out before the next waves hit. Too bad about the damage though.

I just made reservation at Gulf State Park yesterday. Scary!

Green D · 04-15-2021, 08:06 AM

Wow sorry to hear, that's my favorite go to location. Best to you and all the others that got hammered. I agree keep an eye on the radar app on your phone.

Eric

153stars · 04-15-2021, 08:45 AM

Good luck on the repairs . The vents and most lights can be had quicker than the skylight. Sounds like you need to do some emergency repairs to keep out rain. You have to inspect very closely for other damage. Take picks keep receipts. Did you have a toad.

amosnandy · 04-15-2021, 08:56 AM

Sorry to hear all that. Insurance? I have been an adjuster for over 20 years. Most know nothing about campers motorhomes and such. I do most at my part time contract gig. If you have comp on a rig that old, (I Hope) they will probably deem it a total loss. That's the fastest way the insurance company likes to get out of them. One settlement and done. Good luck with the repairs.

davidceder · 04-15-2021, 09:26 AM

I always have a NOAA radio on hand. You can get the small and they are fairly cheap. Check out "MIDLAND" many models.

Sorry about the damage.

Arch Hoagland · 04-15-2021, 10:36 AM

Did you contact your insurance company?

We got hit by a tornado in Branson, MO and had similar damage. AAA covered it all.

twinboat · 04-15-2021, 11:14 AM

I had hail damage on my car and insurance covered it.

In not sure that taking off in very low visibility and 70 MPH wind gusts was the safest move. I would have stayed put.

ga traveler · 04-16-2021, 04:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by twinboat

I had hail damage on my car and insurance covered it.

In not sure that taking off in very low visibility and 70 MPH wind gusts was the safest move. I would have stayed put.

Did you read my entire post? We left because there were two more storms coming. The people who stayed were the ones who lost everything. Roofs were torn off and and some tow trucks and motorhomes had all windows broken out. All plastic roof fixtures were destroyed.windows were knocked out.
Hundreds of campers were completely destroyed.
Our toad car had the rear window gone but the windshield, thought shattered, held in place. Taillight and rear view mirror were broken. The rear package tray and windshield grill were also shattered.
Of course there are a hundred big dents everywhere.
If we had stayed for the next two hailstorms we would have been towed away like so many others.
On top of that, we were under a tornado warning.
It was a white fisted drive, but safer than staying there.

twinboat · 04-16-2021, 05:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ga traveler

Did you read my entire post? We left because there were two more storms coming. The people who stayed were the ones who lost everything. Roofs were torn off and and some tow trucks and motorhomes had all windows broken out. All plastic roof fixtures were destroyed.windows were knocked out.
Hundreds of campers were completely destroyed.
Our toad car had the rear window gone but the windshield, thought shattered, held in place. Taillight and rear view mirror were broken. The rear package tray and windshield grill were also shattered.
Of course there are a hundred big dents everywhere.
If we had stayed for the next two hailstorms we would have been towed away like so many others.
On top of that, we were under a tornado warning.
It was a white fisted drive, but safer than staying there.

You didn't know that before you headed out on your ride into peril.

You will never outrun a storm, in a RV.

Ever hear the term " Any Port in a Storm " ?

chuckftboy · 04-16-2021, 06:45 PM

I'm with ga traveler' I would have hightailed it out of there too. I've been in hail storms and know the damage they can do first hand. The hail I was in was only egg sized and the damage was amazing. I'd take my chances running the opposite direction of the storm

ga traveler · 04-16-2021, 08:03 PM

Yes we did know about the weather that was coming at us after the initial storm. Smart phones are called smart for a reason. Between the motorhome and car we have over $14,000.00 in damage which our insurance is covering. It’s easy to say what you should do when you’re not in that situation, but we considered what we were seeing on radar and decided we should leave as soon as we could. Which after hearing what happened later was the right thing for us to do and we don’t regret out decision. Thanks for your input.

Hoosier14 · 04-16-2021, 08:43 PM

OP I’m glad to hear that you and your family were safe. It is easy for others to second guess what should happen after it is over, but it is different in the moment and you chose what was best at the time and it proved to be a better outcome than staying.

We were in Orange Beach, AL earlier the same day, went to Destin and stopped at a Wal Mart at 11PM as we were headed home. At 6AM we awoke to a tornado warning going off on our phones for the town we were in. We quickly thought of options as Wal Mart was not open. There was no place to go in anywhere.I decided to head for a rest stop several miles West, but as we just started to leave, a wall of water, wind and ominous clouds hit. I decided to park on the East side of Walmart right next to a concrete wall near the loading docks and we rode out the storm. All turned out fine for us and in our case, staying was a good decision.

ga traveler · 04-17-2021, 07:39 AM

Thanks chuckftboy and Hoosier. I do not for a second think we were wrong. First we were on the canal in the Gulf state park. There is where all the worst Damage was. It is wide open with no trees to break the wind. Second we were listening to the weather warnings. They said two more cells were coming that were worse than than the one we were just in. Many of The people who stayed were completely wiped out. I would do the same thing again if it ever comes to that. But I pray it never happens again.