‘It’s going to be chaotic’: Hail causes damage to cars in Cedar Falls

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa (KCRG) - Storms Tuesday night brought strong wind gusts and hail damage across Eastern Iowa - impacting businesses like AutoHaus Sales and Service in Cedar Falls.

The car dealership and repair shop has been open since November. Owner Ace Ansar said the business was just getting established in their location when this first spring thunderstorm season hit.

“We started seeing pea-sized hail,” said Ansar. “Then out of nowhere, I would say golf-ball-sized hail, really fast. It was almost alarming. I had never experienced hail before so it kind of got me by surprise.“

The team tried to get their cars under cover, but then it became unsafe.

“One of my employees actually ran out to close the window on his car and got hit in the head and it started boiling up a little bit, which is pretty rough for him, but he took a day off today,” said Ansar.

Now, multiple windshields and sunroofs on their vehicles are cracked into pieces and customers are calling in to get their vehicles fixed too.

He said his team is focused on replacing glass first and then scheduling body repairs such as paintless dent removal.

“We’re just looking forward to try to help as much people as we can and just keep everything contained because it’s going to be chaotic, it already is, but we’re looking to manage everything from that, a little risk mitigation,” said Ansar.

Ansar said it will make for a busy - and stressful - rest of the week.

“It was a lot of hopelessness and seeing your assets diminish is kind of sad,” he said.

If your vehicle experienced damage in the storms, he recommended getting in touch with your local body shop and insurance to make sure you can get your storm damage taken care of right away.