We experienced that while visiting our daughter in Iowa. Hubby and I had been left in charge of the farm while our daughter and son-in-law took the oldest grandchild to the doctor in Des Moines.
Hubby was comfortably stretched out in the recliner watching a golf match, when it started to rain. The rain became harder and harder then it began to sound even louder. We went to the door looking out on the back deck and discovered it was beginning to hail. The little flakes of ice were about the size of a fingernail but as we watched the rain changed entirely to hail. It looked like a snowstorm. Soon the deck was covered in white. Then we noticed that the hail covering the deck looked like it had small craters in it. In amazement we watched as hail stones as big as golf balls began to fall faster and faster, pounding the deck, literally exploding the smaller hail covering the deck out of the way. Almost as quickly, it was over. The cloud passed and the sun came out. The storm, which had arrived with no warning had lasted less than 10 minutes.
We ran to the door to check the damage. We stared in disbelief at the cars and truck left in the drive earlier. All were beaten and covered in golf ball sized dents with windshields and tail lights broken. The ground was covered ankle deep in leaves from the surrounding trees, the flower beds were beaten to a pulp, her little vegetable garden just gone, with not a leaf left of the beans, tomatoes and peppers. Flower pots on the deck were shattered. Then our gaze went to the corn field in front of the house. Where once had been rows of little green plants were now just stubs. The metal buildings were now sporting a coat of polka dots where the hail had blown the paint off. The huge plastic covered worm of silage so recently stored for winter feed looked like it had been blasted with a huge shot-gun. The plastic was just covered in holes.
Our son-in-law and daughter arrived home to utter devastation. He immediately took off to check the fields. He came back to report that his hay crop was beaten to the ground but the cows and calves were all accounted for. The corn was stripped of the leaves but if the growth nodes weren't damaged it could come back. Maybe. He also discovered that the hail storm had been extremely local...almost just their farm. Going a mile in any direction and you soon drove out of the damage area.
Looking around at the mess, he said, "It could have been worse. It wasn't a tornado and we could have had the tractors and planters here instead of at the other farm." He was right. We were safe and so were the megabucks expensive tractors and delicate planters. On a farm, cars, roofs, and buildings are secondary to the all important planting equipment.
I have to give my son-in-law credit. Not once did he ask "Why didn't you put some of these vehicles in the shed?" A question hubby would have been screaming at the top of his lungs. The truth is it was unbelievably vicious and fast.
When we left for home a few days later our daughter laughed and said as she hugged me, "You won't be crying when you leave this time. You'll be driving 90 miles an hour to get the hell out of here!"
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