Damaging hail, flooding slams metro

EDGEWOOD, N.M. (KRQE) - Winter in August?

Hail fell so hard and fast in parts of New Mexico Thursday that it looked like snow on the ground.

Parts of metro Albuquerque were left battered and bruised after that storm pounded the area with flash floods, too.

Hail up to the size of tennis and softballs fell in Edgewood tearing through awnings, cracking car windshields and scaring the heck out of homeowner Karen Tilbury.

"When the skylight popped, it sounded like an explosion," Tilbury said.

Karen and her family are fine, but her skylights are toast.

Roofer Wade Taylor said the hail also totaled Tilbury's roof.

He showed how the roof is pockmarked from the hail, adding it will only mean problems later.

"See how flimsy that is," Taylor said. "What that is is paper thin, and in a year from now that will turn into a huge hole."

Along with hail, serious rain flooded and closed roads for hours last night in Edgewood.

Crews worked Friday to clear mud from the roads, but Thursday night Rudolph Archuleta with the New Mexico Department of Transportation used this plow for the hail that was almost a foot deep in some spots.

"When I first got out here I was all, 'Wow, it's August, and we already have snow,' but it was hail," Archuleta said.

Like many here Edgewood, Tilbury woke up to hail still on the ground but also something worse.

Every single one of the fish in her pond are dead after the hail storm.

After all the damage to her home and a pond full of dead fish, Tilbury said the storm is one she will never forget.

"I'm a native New Mexican, and I've never seen anything like this," she said.

She said insurance will cover her roof damage, but she will have to plant a lot of new bushes in her yard that were pulverized by the hail.

The fire department in Edgewood will be on alert Friday night.

With the ground fully saturated, they are worried any more heavy rain will lead to flooding.