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Golf ball-sized hail pummels Maine towns

Residents of Jay and Livermore Falls say the largest hail dropped for about 15 minutes and brought plenty of property damage.

JAY, Maine — Powerful storms moved through Maine on Sunday, bringing with them damaging precipitation.

"Never," Jay resident Nelson Dipompo said. "Never seen anything that big." 

Dipompo said he's lived in the Jay area his entire life; however, the hail storm that rolled through Sunday evening was like nothing he'd ever seen before.

"It looks like somebody hit it with a hammer 40 times," Dipompo said about his truck, which was outside during the storm. "At my house, it made holes in the vinyl siding." 

Dipompo is not alone. Hundreds, if not thousands, of vehicles and homes took damage during the hard-hitting hail storm. Residents said the strongest hail only came down for about 15 minutes sometime after 4 p.m., but at its peak, they said the hailstones were the size of golf balls.

"It was wild. It was unbelievable," Jonne Gross described. "The hail was just coming down. It was like a blizzard. And the winds were blowing. The leaves were flying. I have a globe out in my yard, shattered that all to pieces. It was scary."

Gross had to bring her car to Grondin's Autobody in Jay on Monday for an estimate after her vehicle was outside during the storm.

"A lot of dings," Gross said. "According to my mechanic, hundreds."

Some folks, like Livermore Falls resident Allison Dempsey, got lucky.

"All that saw damage was my Hosta plants. But they'll grow back, and they will recover. I'm just glad my car wasn't here," Dempsey said. 

NEWS CENTER Maine also spoke with employees of Weber Insurance in Livermore Falls who were too busy for an interview but said they've been receiving calls and filing claims all day and that it's been hectic. 

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