All is calm on Wednesday, 14th April 1999.
It was still very warm but quite humid. Suddenly, clouds started
to gather quickly. It started to rain heavily. I didn't notice
the rain at first, but then it started to sound like the rain
had turned into rocks.
My friend, Alex King said it sounded like someone was spraying
machine gun bullets all over the tin roof. Everyone started to
panic! People started to rush out to cover their valuable cars,
motor bikes and windows. Some ninnies ran outside, just to collect
the hail stones, risking their necks. The hail became the size
of cricket balls.
The S.E.S. received 15,000 calls but only got to 3,000. Not bad
for a nights work. After everyone finished covering their cars,
trucks and roofs, they became calmer.
The next morning when everyone woke up, their neighbourhood had
broken windows, broken sky-lights, and windscreens in their cars
had been broken and tiles were smashed. There were leaks in the
roofs, dents in the cars and branches and leaves were everywhere.
You name it, it was broken.
Now started the big clean-up. The hardware stores had lots of
people buying tarpaulins, tiles, slates, new sky-lights and more.
The S.E.S. had 7,000 jobs to attend too. My Grandma and Grandpa
had their roof hammered by hail stones. My Grandpa was hit in
the shin with a hail stone.
Dad said, "Did you put ice on it straight away?"
Boom! Boom! The next door neighbours' cat was hit by one and
killed.
The guttering and roof was smashed in my Granpa's house and my
Dad went in the roof to put some slate in the holes. I helped
by walking around the street looking for slate that would fit
the holes. Everyone was sweeping the street.
Hey! I bet you the insurance companies are going to have a great
time paying out the policies.