Fatal hailstorm in Greeley results in disaster declaration

The City of Greeley has declared a disaster following the significant hailstorm that devastated the eastern side of the northern Colorado city. The city reports nearly $1.5 million in damage has already been reported by residents in the days since the storm. 

The storm hit Tuesday night dropping large hail on the community for more than an hour. 

"(There was) immense amounts of rain coupled with hail took a pretty brutal attack on downtown," said Kelli Johnson, assistant city manager for Greeley. 

Some neighborhoods on the southeastern side of town were covered in more than one foot of hail that took nearly 24 hours to melt. 

"I've heard a lot of people describe it as the most intense light show they have ever seen. The thunder, the lightning, the rain. Certainly downtown the hail looks more like snow even hours after the impacts," Johnson told CBS News Colorado's Dillon Thomas. 

Because of that, Greeley's mayor declared a disaster to expedite access to resources for the city and residents that fell victim. 

"What that does is position the city and our community to hopefully be able to look at assistance options through the county, state and federal level if necessary," Johnson said. 

One person was killed during the storm, their body found in the backyard of a home after sunrise following the storm. Their cause of death hasn't been released by the coroner's office at the time of this publication. 

Johnson said a reason the southeastern side of Greeley experienced flooding is because of the age of the infrastructure below. 

"The infrastructure in the southeast portion of our community is the oldest infrastructure we have," Johnson said. 

Residents in some communities had water reaching to the ceiling of their basements. 

"(The hail) was pounding on the roof, it was hitting all the cars. It was loud and good size hail, like baseball size," said Dakine Persons, the grandson of one resident who was impacted. 

Persons and his parents spent their week helping clear the damage from the property, having to throw away many possessions. 

"We've been tearing apart all the carpets trying to get the water out," Persons said. 

Persons noted there were still parts of the house that had water in it three days after the storm. 

He said having further access to emergency funding would be greatly beneficial to restoring the property to being livable. 

"This would be amazing. It would be absolutely needed because the amount of damages that happened are financially destructive to people that have hard financial situations, especially in this neighborhood," Persons said. 

Anyone who has property that was damaged by the storm is encouraged to contact the city here.