Stars and Bars RestorationWe were still cleaning hail off our own trucks in Colorado City on the morning of September 9th when the phone started ringing. A line of severe thunderstorms rolled through north central Huerfano County and southwestern Pueblo County the night of September 8th into the early hours of the 9th, and the National Weather Service office in Pueblo had severe thunderstorm warnings up for hours as cell after cell moved through — some producing hail up to 1.75 inches, close to golf ball size, along with wind gusts near 60 mph. Over in Pueblo, homes near the Applewood Drive area reported quarter-to-golf-ball hail with shattered windows and real vehicle damage.
If you're in Colorado City, Rye, San Isabel, or anywhere else in the Greenhorn Valley and you heard that hail hammering your roof that night, you're not imagining the damage. This is exactly the kind of storm we tell people to walk their property after — even when nothing looks obviously wrong from the driveway.
What This Storm Actually Did
NWS Pueblo's warnings that night specifically called out "north central Huerfano and southwestern Pueblo counties" and later "northeastern Huerfano and south central Pueblo counties" as the storm cells tracked across the region. That's about as close to our own backyard as these warnings get — Colorado City and Rye sit right in that corridor. Independent storm-tracking data logged a hail report of 1.75 inches about eight miles southeast of Colorado City, and wind gusts in the 60 mph range were called out in the warning text for the same window.
Hail that size doesn't have to look catastrophic to cause real damage. A 1.5 to 2 inch hailstone hitting an asphalt shingle roof at wind-driven speed can crack the mat underneath the granules without tearing the shingle itself — which means the leak doesn't show up until the next hard rain, sometimes weeks later. Combine that with 60 mph gusts and you also get wind-driven rain forced up under shingles and around flashing, which is its own separate water intrusion problem even without a single hailstone hitting your roof.
Why We're Telling You to Check Now, Not Later
We've said this before and we'll keep saying it: hail damage is one of the easiest things to miss and one of the most expensive things to ignore. Here's what we want every homeowner in the Greenhorn Valley to actually do this week:
Walk the exterior. Look at your gutters and downspouts first — hail dents soft aluminum gutters more visibly than it dents a shingle roof, so dinged-up gutters are often the first sign you took a direct hit. Check window and door screens for tears, look at your AC unit's condenser fins for dents (bent fins reduce efficiency and are a cheap, easy insurance claim item people forget), and check any exposed wood trim or siding for fresh dings.
Check your attic, not just your roofline. If you can safely get into your attic, look for new water stains on the underside of the roof deck or on rafters, especially near vents, chimneys, and skylights. Fresh dark spots that weren't there before the storm are the first sign that a hail-cracked shingle is already letting water through.
Don't wait for a leak to show up in the living room. By the time water is visibly coming through your ceiling, it's usually been running down inside your wall cavities or across your insulation for a while — and that's the point where we start seeing mold growth as well as the visible water damage. A next-day inspection catches damage while it's still a roofing repair. A three-week-later inspection often turns into a full interior water damage and mold job.
Photograph everything before you touch anything. If you do find hail damage, photograph it in daylight before any repairs, tarping, or cleanup — insurance adjusters want to see the damage as the storm left it, and clear photos from the days right after the event carry more weight than photos taken after a rainstorm has already washed debris around.
If You're Already Seeing Water Damage
If this storm's wind and hail already got past your roof or window seals and you've got water coming into your home, don't wait on your insurance company to tell you it's okay to start drying things out — standing water and wet drywall start growing mold within 24 to 48 hours, and every hour you wait extends the damage and the cost. We're a phone call away at (719) 676-2456, and as a veteran-owned, IICRC-certified crew based right here in Colorado City, we can usually get someone on-site the same day for anything storm-related in the Greenhorn Valley.
We also work directly with insurance adjusters on hail and wind claims, which matters because storm damage claims get disputed more than almost any other type of claim — insurers sometimes argue that damage is "cosmetic" or pre-existing. Good documentation from day one, done by people who know what an adjuster is looking for, makes a real difference in whether your claim gets paid in full.
A Note on Insurance Timing
Colorado homeowners' policies typically give you one year or more to file a hail or wind claim, but the practical clock is much shorter than that. Insurers can and do argue that damage found months later can't be tied to a specific storm date, so if you suspect this storm hit your property, get an inspection on the books this week — not after the next rain, and not after you've already gotten a few other bids from door-to-door storm chasers who showed up in the neighborhood the day after the warning expired. We wrote more about spotting those crews and what red flags to watch for in our guide on hiring a restoration company.
If you want a deeper breakdown of what to do when hail damages a roof specifically, we cover shingle-by-shingle inspection tips in our Pueblo/Colorado Springs hail damage guide, and if your insurer already denied part of a hail claim, this piece walks through your options.
We're Local, Not a Storm-Chasing Crew From Out of State
Every hail event like this one brings a wave of out-of-town contractors into Huerfano and Pueblo counties chasing the same claims, and most of them are gone within a few weeks. Stars & Bars is based in Colorado City — this is our home valley, not a temporary market. We'll be here in six months if a repair needs a second look, and we'll be here next storm season too.
If the September 8-9 storm hit your roof, siding, or windows, call us at (719) 676-2456 for a free damage assessment, or reach out any time at services@sb-resto.com. We'd rather tell you honestly that a few dents are cosmetic than talk you into a claim you don't need — but if the hail got through, we want to catch it before it turns into a mold problem this winter.