Sunday night's severe weather left behind lots of damage in Navarro County. The city of Blooming Grove, which is about 20 minutes west of Corsicana, saw baseball-sized hail.
Blooming Grove ISD canceled classes for the entire week because of the amount of damage sustained to all three campuses.
"Our junior high gym, junior high campus and my high school campus all have flat roofs. The hail damage was so substantial that my contractor and the insurance company both reported that it was the worst hail damage they've ever seen," said Rick Hartley, superintendent of Blooming Grove ISD.
He said Sunday night he went to check each school and found flooding in all the hallways and classrooms due to holes in the ceiling from the hail.
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"You look up and you see very few ceiling tiles because of the moisture all those holes in the roof almost everything got wet," said Hartley. "
"I asked them (contractors) in more details, 'Like how many holes are you seeing?' And they referenced 30 to 40 holes per 100 square feet," said Hartley who explained all the roofs will need to be replaced.
He said the most recent estimate was $1.2 million just for the roof, which doesn't include the interior. Hartley said it be paid for by insurance once the district pays the detectable.
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The district plans to welcome students and staff back next week, but it will take months to make permanent repairs.
"The roofing company assured me they would have the new roof in place by Sunday so we can start Monday. Inside the building the cleanup has been non-stop since pretty much Sunday at midnight," said Hartley.
Blooming Grove ISD said students will have to make up two days and the district will apply to have the other days waived.
The mayor of the city, Bill Carroll, said the damage was widespread and that almost everyone had some sort of damage, including himself.
"I had extensive roof damage, windows broken out, as well as damage to the hail to the siding on my home," said Carroll.
He said he had never seen hail that large for that length of time. People reported it lasted for more than 20 minutes.
"If you were in the house it sounded like you were in a war zone people on top of the house hitting it with sledge hammers," said Carroll.
The mayor is urging residents to be careful of roofing scammers who have arrived in town from all over the state and even from outside of Texas.
He encouraged people, whether they have insurance or not, to file a claim through the Texas Department of Emergency Management with an 'Individual State of Texas Assessment Tool (iSTAT) Damage Survey' for their business or residence.
