Auto Glass Industry Scrambles as Hitchcock, Texas, Hit with Baseball-Sized Hail
April 3, 2013

by Jenna Reed, jreed@glass.com

The Hitchcock, Texas, area was pummeled with 20 minutes of baseball- and softball-sized hail early Wednesday, leaving a swath of auto glass damage in the storm's path which has left the auto glass repair and replacement community scrambling.

This story made national headlines, even drawing the attention of Al Roker, who discussed the storm damage on the Today Show this morning.

One local report says half of Hitchcock's police cars were knocked out of commission by the hail damage.

Auto glass repair and replacement shops are witnessing the resulting upswing in business.

"It's pretty hectic," says David Ozment, of Binswanger Glass in Galveston, Texas, which was in the storm's path. "We've had 40 to 50 customers call in. For a day or two we'll see an uptick but it won't last long. We're not crying over the increase in business."

Meanwhile, Steve Reid of Trudy's Paint and Body Shop, had a similar story.

"It's going good so far. We've had a lot of calls come in and so far we've been doing alright," he says.

Marble Falls, Texas, also saw some hail damage as a similar storm swept through earlier this week.

"We've not seen a lot here," says James Bagley of Roger Beasley Auto Glass in Austin, Texas, which isn't far from Marble Falls.

"The damage was more up in Marble Falls, but we've seen a couple of cars. We don't anticipate too much business from the storm," he says.

This story is an original story by AGRR™ magazine/glassBYTEs.com™. Subscribe to AGRR™ Magazine.
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