East Texas Hailstorm Creates Long Lines at Auto Body Shops

A hailstorm over much of the Red River Radio listening area over the weekend caused all kinds of damage from rooftops to cars. That has translated into long lines at auto body shops to start off the work week. Dime, quarter and in some places golf ball size hail left some vehicles with, in some cases, up to $12,000 to $15,000 worth of damage. That includes parts of East Texas where the storm swept through Sunday morning. The owner of H&S Paint and Body Shop in Kilgore, Texas tells KTRE-TV in Lufkin that they’ve already seen a huge spike in business and expects many more car owners to come by in the coming days.
Harkey says a lot of people are likely calling their insurance company first and getting everything in order before stopping at auto body shops just like his in the piney woods of East Texas.
In fact, Harkey describes how this latest storm has created some real challenges for businesses trying to make all the repairs. “The shops are still dealing with the last hailstorm. We have parts situations. We have, from all the strikes and all, from the different car manufacturers that’s got the parts behind. Plus, your used parts now are covered with hail damage. So, it’s probably going to take a little while to get everybody back in line and scheduled to get their cars fixed.” Harkey says the turnaround time for repairs is about three weeks if replacement parts are not needed.