By STEPHANIE FARLEY

Hail 5-6 Video

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sfarley@gctelegram.com

As the sky was clouding up on Monday afternoon, Holcomb City Administrator Robin Peña and others at city hall were telling recently hired Police Chief Gordon Smith that it never seems to rain in western Kansas.

They didn't think the darkening clouds would amount to much, Peña said, but "it proved us wrong."

This morning, Peña had city employees out surveying city property for damage from Monday night's storm, marking down on a yellow pad what they found.

"Basically, it's broken windows and a lot of vehicle damage," Peña said of damage around town.

As for the city, she's still not sure what all damage city property sustained -- city hall's got a cracked window, and she thinks there might be additional broken windows at the city shop, as well as on the well houses. Peña said her vehicle's banged up pretty good, with the hood pulverized and a broken windshield.

"It just didn't seem to stop," she said of the hail.

Similar damage was experienced in Garden City. Frederick Kruse, meteorologist for National Weather Service at Dodge City, said severe weather needs several ingredients, including wind shear, a lifting mechanism and instability.

All of those factors were present Monday night, he said.

According to the National Weather Service, the amount of precipitation in the county ranged from a half-inch to 1.73 inches between 7 a.m. Monday and this morning. Storm reports by the agency start showing hail spottings in Finney County around 4:50 p.m., about four miles south, southwest of Friend, with 1.75-inch hail. Reports range from about .75-inch hail to 4.25 inches.

Reports in Finney County ended at 7:16 p.m. Monday with hail spotted three miles northwest of Pierceville.

Kruse said an outflow boundary, which is a surge of cooler air from decaying thunderstorms, formed around the Hays area earlier Monday morning and moved toward Garden City, providing a lifting mechanism for the storm activity.

He said moisture and other ingredients existed for Monday's storms, "so everything was kind of converging."

He said the same ingredients would exist this afternoon, possibly causing more storms to occur.

According to the Garden City Police Department, three marked patrol vehicles out responding to calls in the storm received damage, including a broken light bar, windshield and dents from hail. Some of the department's take-home vehicles were damaged, and officers noticed roof damage and broken windows and dents to vehicles throughout town.

Finney County Sheriff Kevin Bascue estimated this morning that about 75 percent of the department's fleet of more than 40 vehicles sustained damage -- amounting to about 30 to 35 vehicles with varying degrees of damage.

According to the Garden City Fire Department, there were downed power lines in Holcomb and at 2700 N. 11th St.

City Public Works Director Sam Curran said city crews would be cleaning up downed leaves throughout town caused by the hail storm.

Curran said the City Administrative Center, 301 N. Eighth, had a broken window on the second floor from the storm, and a couple of vehicle windshields at the city parks department were busted.

Curran said the city's still in the process of assessing damage and cleaning up streets and gutters. Curran suggested those cleaning up their properties not rake downed leaves into the gutters to prevent drainage problems. He said residents should be able to clean up downed leaves and limbs and dispose of them on their own.

Curran suggested people call the department if there are larger limbs down and needing picked up.

Curran said the department will have sweepers running throughout town to help with cleaning streets.

Keller-Leopold Insurance Agency, 302 Fleming, was getting a lot of calls this morning regarding possible insurance claims, according to Doug Keller, with the agency.

He estimated they'd had about 100 claims turned in so far this morning related to the storm.

Keller said damage being reported ranged from vehicle to home and other property damage.

"It's widespread," he said.

Keller recommends people make temporary repairs to damaged areas to minimize further damage from future storms, adding anyone with questions on storm damage or repairs is free to call the agency for more information.