Calgarians tally hail damage

Calgarians are spending time on hold with insurance brokers and filling out claims one day after an intense hailstorm damaged vehicles and property.

Golf-ball sized hail pelted parts of the city on Monday afternoon, denting vehicles and evencrackingwindshields.

"We've got hundreds of dents, a couple spider cracks on the windshield and the back window is sitting in the back seat," said DJ Kelly of his car.

Yuval Kordov found out on Tuesday that fixingthe dents on his customized Volvo and replacing the windshield will cost $2,500.

"Yeah, this is my baby, and I'm a bit worried about it not seeming new anymore but that's life," he said.

The Dent Clinicin southeast Calgary has been getting a steady stream of phone calls and customers.

"The phones started ringing before the hail even stopped," said owner Mark Armstrong.

While most residential policies cover hail damage, vehicle coverage depends on each driver's plan, said Glen Labelle, an independent insurance adjuster in Calgary.

Doug Noble, vice-president of the Alberta and North region for the Insurance Bureau of Canada, said people should not delay in getting a damage assessment.

"Probably better that they do it as soon as they possibly can, recognizing that folks in the insurance business in Calgary and in southern Alberta are going to be pretty busy right now," he said.

"The most important thing to do is to be patient because the problem is there's going to be a lot of people reporting claims to their agent or broker's office and it's going to take a while for that process to get through to the insurance company and eventually to the adjuster who's going to be handling that claim," advised Labelle.

The worst hail storm in Canadian history in terms of paid insurance claims was in Calgary in 1991.

That 30-minute storm resulted in about 62,000 claims of $237 million for residential damage and another $105 million for vehicle damage.

A rainfall warning that beganlate Monday afternoonis still in effect for much of central and southern Alberta including Airdrie, Cochrane, Drumheller. Some areas have already seen 50 millimetres of rain and another 40 to 60 mm is forecast to fall by Tuesday night, said Environment Canada.

The Calgary Stampede cancelled the Rangeland Derby chuckwagon race on Tuesday night for the first time in Stampede history. Organizers said they weren't able to seal the track and so were concerned for the safety of the horses and competitors.