Residents of Davidson woke up to a scene of devastation last Thursday morning after a fierce hail, rain and wind storm tore through the town the previous night.

Leaves, pine cones and branches both big and small littered the streets and sidewalks throughout town May 29 after around two inches of rain fell late Wednesday night and early Thursday morning. A savage wind accompanied the rain during the storm that followed a display of constant lightning that lit up the night sky while grape-sized hailstones fell to the ground blanketing the town in white.

“When we lived on the farm we had a lot of hail, but I’ve never heard anything like that,” said Holly LePoudre, about the thunderous noise the falling hail and wind made in people’s homes. She said the storm blasted branches and leaves off a few trees near her property on Washington Avenue and the ice also punched a few holes into the roof of her car port.

Lyle Wightman, who lives across the street from LePoudre, surveyed a yard filled with broken LED lights mixed with debris and mounds of hail yet to melt the morning after the storm. Before the hail found its resting place on the ground it shattered a few of his home’s windows and pot-marked the siding on his western wall.

“I’m going to phone the insurance and see what they’re going to say,” said Wightman. “If they say it’s up to me then I’ll have to start working at her. At the moment I’m trying to get the ice away from (the wall) because it’s running into the basement.”

Davidson’s Herman Crescent seemed a focal point of the storm as it preyed on vehicles parked on the street and the homes the car’s owners resided in.

Sharon Church said her GMC Terrain suffered cracked taillights and numerous “dints” on the hood and roof. She said the motor home parked at the back of her driveway also experienced damage from the falling hail and a “little bit” of flooding inside.

The Lang family’s newly sowed garden outside their home fell victim to the hail as well. Francisco Lang said he and his wife spent the previous evening planting flowers at the front of their Herman Crescent house that were now nothing more than damaged crop.

To read more please see the June 2 print edition of The Davidson Leader.