Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities

Storm leaves trail of damage

The Gonzales family van sat in the driveway of their Dora residence Wednesday morning looking battered, with two shattered windshields and multiple dents.

CNJ staff photo: Tony Bullocks

Air conditioner and window damaged at Becky Black's home during Wednesday's hail storm that hit Melrose.

"It sounded like someone had opened fire on the house," Denise Gonzales said of Tuesday night's storm that packed up to baseball-sized hail, leaving a trail of shattered vehicle windshields and windows and bullet-like holes in metal roofs across parts of eastern New Mexico.

"In the house, we have an interior hall with closable doors and we all got in there. Thank God for old houses," Gonzales said.

She said the thick walls of her house incurred no damage from the hail but the shingles of her roof were badly damaged and four windows were shattered, including one with double glass.

The massive storm also produced a tornado that touched down briefly near Floyd and near Dora.

National Weather Service meteorologists in Albuquerque rated the tornado as an EF0, with winds between 65 and 85 mph.

After spending the day surveying Roosevelt County on Wednesday, National Weather Service meteorologist Kerry Jones said he believed the minor tornado had touched down for about a five-minute period northeast of Floyd then again at the edge of Dora.

Jones said Dora was pummeled with 4-1/2 inch (softball-sized) hail, matching the largest ever recorded in New Mexico while Melrose and Floyd experience slightly smaller hail, ranging from golf-ball to baseball-sized hail.

He said the severe thunderstorm began near House over the caprock and worked its way to Melrose and Dora, only "clipping" Portales along the way.

CNJ staff photo: Tony Bullocks

Josh Radcliffe of Melrose places a plastic tarp Thursday over his 2000 Ford Mustang in front of his home of Fifth Street. Radcliffe's 2002 Alero was also damaged by the hail storm.

There were no injuries reported with the storm, emergency officials said.

Floyd resident Allen Deen was one of the first to spot the tornado and report it to Portales police dispatch.

"There was a wedge shape of clouds coming into the ground from the back side of the clouds," Deen said. "The wedge shape that we saw was probably about 10 miles southeast of our house. It was going towards Dora."

Deen said he and a friend continued to watch the progress of the wedge-shaped clouds and report into Portales dispatch and Emergency Management Director Keith Wattenbarger as their families hid inside Deen's house.

Deen, who lives between New Mexico 480 and the Floyd highway, said hail caused damage to the metal roof of his house and knocked out the skylights to two barns and a recreational vehicle, but he currently has no crops planted which could be damaged.

Neighboring farmer Bruce Lee said his corn crops suffered minor damage.

"It was little enough damage to where it's going to be all right," he said. "We just gotta keep them wet now."

Anderson said the tornado did not damage any structures.

That was not the case in Melrose.

Becky Black said she thinks the roof of her house will have to be replaced and two of her windows were broken.

"A lot of people did lose a lot of windows and windshields. But the most important thing is no one was hurt and everyone was helping each other," Black said. "Everyone was out checking on people and offering to help."

Colin Chandler, whose property sits five miles northeast of Floyd on the Bethel highway, may have received the worst beating from the Tuesday night hail storm.

"It missed my crops," Chandler said. "All of the damage was done to my machines and my house. We've got windshields just beaten to pieces on all the vehicles."

Chandler said he managed to get three farming vehicles into his barn before the storm hit, but the other three were badly damaged. He said two of the vehicles could not be driven Wednesday.

"I think we were right in the middle of the storm and it got us pretty hard," he said.

Chandler said a window was also broken out of his house and numerous holes were punched through the metal roof of his barn

"At least our crops weren't hit. There's always a silver lining," Chandler said. "But then again, we've got enough damage to our property that it probably equals losing a crop. But at least insurance has this one. It's better than a crop that way."