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Show Wednesday's Hailstorm Will Be Long Remembered in Moab v H'J?1 "Af -J , -4 ; 44 I,. -:..'-' r, i y ,S j .)v- The riddled awning of the F. A. Barnes tralier home in Holiday Hol-iday Haven is surprising testimony of the force of Moab's historic hailstorm. The storm hit the city from the west and most of the damage was confined to the north section of town. ? . ? ,. , - t H t , ' , 1 1 j r " V " ' , . 4 , v , it l ;!' ' ' ' v ' ,v- ' i ," ; - , J i . i '-ry " i - " , . t " 1 " . ' i " ' . . , ! ' j ' A ; I ' " J'. The front yard of the Sam Taylor home during Wednesday's storm was an exhibit of wintry white. A vast congregation of ' -I II I ..im.J.arlMl . ..mill m.; hailstones was floating on top of about a foot and a half of water in the Taylors' front yard. Illl Ill MB I mini li I ii III mil illiill li in mi liiTrrnwi ill n m umi m nn mm m nm iimimiiwiiiin immhhhiiiiiiii miii i Wednesday August 14, 19G3 in Moab will be long remembered remem-bered as the day of the big hail. At about 10 in the. morning the skies began tJ darken and at 10:50 black clouds lowered almost to the cliffs to the west of the city. Then it struck, hailstones and rain coming in, torrents. In five minutes city streets were white with about an inch of hail. The stones var-ield var-ield in size from that of a pea to the size of a golf ball. One-inch hailstones were common with the largest being be-ing reported at one and se-:ven-eigh.ths. Between 10:55 and 11:25 a.m. Atlas Minerals' Miner-als' rain gauge showed a precipitation amount of 1.15 inches. Floods came into the city streets bringing great amounts am-ounts of debris and mud. U.S. 160 was closed within minutes near the Frontier station in north Moab. A New Mexico pickup was pulling a concession' trailer along this stretch when the rocks, mud and sand disengaged the trailer' turning it sideways m the road. The floodwaters swirling around, it left boulders boul-ders up to a foot in diameter. The highway was blocked for about -35 minutes until road crews moved in with their equipment. Most of the damage occurred occur-red in peach and apple orchards. or-chards. Johnny Johnson who has 60 acres of the heavily-laden heavily-laden trees stated that they were wiped out by the destructive des-tructive hail: Howard ' Lance who has orchards -higher- in Moab Valley said the hail did not come with destructive destruc-tive force in th,afc section and his orchards were not damaged. dam-aged. Local insurance adjusters estimated es-timated that roughly $30 to $50 thousand ' in ' damages to homes and businesses were chalked up, and all the claims were not in by midweek. mid-week. The hail and rain brought . down, a great amount of mud and sand from the hills east of the city and deposited six to ten inches on certain city streets. Utah 128 and 'the Potash Highway were both closed in several places but were opened by equipment by midafternoon. Costly damage, occurred b hundreds of homes in Moab as a result of the hail. Leon Epmeier of LaSal Roofing said that several roofs he had patched had been riddled rid-dled with more than 1000 holes-. There was consider-erable consider-erable damage to local gardens gar-dens and farm crops in the lower valley also. Window panes were broken in several homes and the Allen Memorial Memor-ial hospital reported broken skylights. -i . , .... -7 ,.""'. ; ' ' - ' 5" v V- v v . """"l - f V . y ..,: , -4 ' ' i " sT t ' - x n ' i 13" , , . c . - - .A- ,-'V;.;- f " -..- - ' -T.i -2J L . - - ."""- "j z Mrzj ,v-; - : ':' - : . . . --- .- ' --. - s-- -3 - .- - .- . ; - v 1----- '. -. -. . - - ; . : ; ; ,. i- . , . . v. - - "-!; . : - v - -- .. -' .- j . - - ... .-..- t - - - . v ; .- -. -.v- -.- . . " .- . , ; -. ... - - r.-. . .. .. -.-T ' - . . "' - - . . " ''. -' .... - ... ' ' ; -' 1 . .-V .r; :li7i ' ' . six ' ;' ". -'. s- ' " , :-'- . V, - ... - .:-' . - .. - . - ' ,-. y ' -' " " .'-"' - "rt J-1 . . - - - . . v ' . - - - - v .,v.;- . -.....- . - . . - - ... ...j. s. - ' .- -' X. - ' ' f. - ... ..... - . - -j " ' v iS' ..-- - f U. S. Highway 160 in north Moab was blocked immediately after the hail-rain hail-rain storm struck. A New Mexico concession trailer became disengaged from a pickup due to the onslaught of debris flowing across the highway and was lodged sideways acrc.s the highway. Times-Independent Photo-Feature By Dick Wilson i . , r s i 1 i' - .. ' " ' ' s " - ' . - rs ,: 5 f : . - . . ' i . .. . v . ' ' H v . x - - ' t - -s- V V' ' 4 ' i i . s ? - -'.. V '"i :,...-.-. v-; 'Ip f t ' v ; -Dv . V j X ' - i i n V- '.4 Mnifv f" ''-'ffe 5 -' The force of last Wednesday's hail is suitably demonstrated by the swiss-cheese appearance appear-ance of this bird bath in the front yard of : . , . fW T, 'tt,! . it . ,; ' j --; i. -, - n I ; - '"' . , ,. .. I - '. . -jilitii--iiiif..'1; '----v BfcMjv.. . . ...r .r Ir ' - - " I .tusn VJL4i : - j 1 I ' ' . - " ; ! v w. a ' " ' l f ' '' . i . f ,.- C-' ,. .v , , . ' v .V " W - . v .- - ' ' , . . . , I L v! .v. -- ,o ... . . '.s?,z :' .. . .w.., ,-.- . . , . . '-Vj-' - Vv . "y I ,.. f .' ' r'-'-i '' ' ; .-. -:' " i h 't - . :x . -w r - f 1 7 -1 . ' - ' - , . . .... - " ..' V ' i . .i'".rH -" . ; 1 - .."'' " ' --"''',""' . W ' 4 - - " ,..-; if - . ,. - . .; ..'.. .....".' :, , ! ... , ... . ,- ... - . , .. . . J ' ..'! .- -.v .... I r ' , ' '. - .'-V- - :rf ., ., 4r , -i. Hail decorated the yards of Moab residents like a fresh January snow Wednesday. This Mrs. Mary Ann Bullick who lives in the west part of Moab. Mrs. Bullick's west-facing windows win-dows were also broken. scene was taken in front of the Grand County Courthouse. - |