MBOMBELA – It has been almost a week since a massive hailstorm left a trail of destruction over the Lowveld, and residents are still picking up the pieces.

Sunday’s severe thunderstorm produced hailstones as large as tennis balls, destroying houses and cars in its wake. Immediately after it hit, the Provincial Disaster Management Centre, along
with other stakeholders, was deployed
to assess the damage.

The official said the damage was devastating. “We have so far identified an excess of a thousand houses left affected in the storm’s wake,” the official said and added that KaNyamazane, Daantjie and Pienaar, bore the brunt of it.

Resident Kholiswe Mlambo from KaNyamanzane, just one of the many people whose vehicle suffered immense damage, told Lowvelder that she was on her way home when she was caught in the wake of the storm. “I was terrified and forlorn. I had to sit and watch how the hailstorm destroyed my vehicle, shattering my side mirror windows, sending shards of glass flying into me,” she said. Just when Mlambo thought it was over, a second storm apparently hit.

She could barely see through her window when she arrived at Glasfit Nelspruit to have her Volkswagen Polo assessed.

Just one of the citrus farmers who bore the brunt of the storm was Japie Terblanche of Terblanche Orange near Duma Lodge adjacent to the N4, a producer of oranges for Karino Citrus. He said not a single piece of fruit was left on his trees. R12 million is a rough estimate of the damage incurred.

All the fruit was ready to be picked and he had already started to harvest on Monday. He and his workers managed to harvest 3,62 hectares which yielded 102 tons of fruit. He lost the rest – 36,38 hectares which roughly comes down to
3 775 tons that were smashed to pieces by the hail.

Dent Doctor, just one of the many dent specialists in the Lowveld, had to assess an excess of 170 cars. “We haven’t had a chance to touch ground since the storm hit,” said estimator Wayne van Rooyen. The damage ranges from R200 000 to R400 000, and a lot of these vehicles were written off. “And there is still a lot to go,” Van Rooyen said.

Kruger National Park’s general manager, communications and marketing, William Mabasa, had not responded to Lowvelder’s enquiry regarding animals that were injured or killed in the park. He previously told this publication that animals learn to adapt to these conditions and that the park’s management will only focus on assessing the damage to infrastructure.

What now? Dean Erasmus of One Stop Auto Shop provides the following valuable tips on what to do when your vehicle has been damaged

Quote

• Your insurer normally requires three quotes.
• Make sure it is done by a trusted panel beater that has ample experience in the paintless dent repair (PDR) industry.
• Not all panel beaters have PDR technicians as it is a very specialised industry.
• If your panel beater does not have PDR technicians, be sure that they replace all panels affected. “Hail damage can’t be fixed with body putty,” Erasmus said.

Booking

• Don’t rush it.
• Panel beaters are currently being flooded with hundreds of vehicles – rushing the process can lead to disappointment.
• The repair work can take up to six weeks without planning the process carefully with your panel beater.
• The process is only supposed to take between one and seven days, depending on the amount of damage.

Follow-up

• Contact your panel beater regularly and find out if things are going according to plan. Insist on them notifying you if the process needs to be lengthened.

Receive

• Your insurer needs to inspect the vehicle before any release document is signed.
• A lot of inconvenience and a loss of your car can be avoided.

Also read: Following the path of hail destruction in the Lowveld