HIGHLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. – As bad as the wind damage was for many owners, it didn't compare to the assault Mother Nature launched on a home in Highland Township.
The heavy winds fired hail stones at such a ferocious angle it peppered the entire home with holes. Nothing was spared, not the windows, garage door, siding or family vehicles.
"The ice snow balls broke my house," said 3-year-old Yevaine.
Her mom, Kellie Creech, was getting home Sunday just as the pelting started.
"Pop, pop, pop. It sounded like the house was going to come down," she said.
Hail stones can travel more than a hundred miles an hour. Pushed by the wind, they became like cannon shots.
Creech and her children headed for the basement.
"And as we were entering the basement door, the windows started shattering. It sounded like machine guns were hitting the house. We sat downstairs for five minutes and it was over," she said.
Creech's father, Bennie, has been hospitalized nine times since mid-March. His wife is there now, battling an infection. He was away when the hail storm hit.
"I was devastated. I couldn't believe it," he said. "They said the siding on the house was all going to have to be replaced, the windows all replaced. The roof must be replaced."
But it's the damage to the garden that breaks Kellie Creech's heart.
"When my dad was in the hospital on life support, he told me I could let it go, but I wouldn't, because I felt like if I gave up on the garden, I was giving up on him coming home. I would stand outside weeding and crying, hoping my dad would come home," she said.
No one in the family was hurt. They were fully insured, but the deductible won't be easy to come up with.