Colorado: Giant Hail stone is followed by tough insurance claim in Brush

Here on another late night at the Peak Claims office came the original news story that a giant ice ball was reported to have recently smashed it’s way through the roof of a home in Brush, CO, right into the kitchen.  Like any good group of insurance damage surveyors we immediately wondered what will get to determine the cause and origin of this monster.  To the best of our knowledge there was no nearby hail storm.

If the victims of the giant ice ball aren’t related to the balloon boy in nearby Fort Collins, CO then you can bet this will be a mammoth weather phenomenon.  If they are related we’ll assume the balloon kid was just traveling by aerostat to visit his friend, although no one really knows if can land yet or not.  Of course, there’s really no place more suited for random giant ice nuggets than Colorado.

Maybe it Sarah Palin’s new book smashing it’s way into the atmosphere?  Maybe all those disgruntled hail storm roofing salesman are out to get revenge?

I sure home the insurer doesn’t try and pull a “peril not covered under the conditions of the policy.”  Even though polices don’t usually address “random ice balls without a hail storm”, any good person would presumably feel a little sympathetic towards this mess.  Oh well, I’m putting my money on the roofing salesman trying to get a few extra bucks.  How many more of these are going to fall in Colorado anyway?  What’s next?  Total losses from hail?  That would almost make my day – and make me rich.

Suppose you were a claim representative with a standard residential coverage and this was a legitimate ice ball from outer space.  What would you do on something like this?  Try and convince your committee it’s too risky to deny?  What jury would side with you on this thing?

All we can say is there better be a picture of it and it better not look like someone made it by hand!  Is our emergency line ringing at this hour?

I’m sure NASA is already on the way out there.

-Phillip Crimaldi is an insurance professional at Peak Claims, Inc.  His first experience with the insurance industry was investigating and settling hail claims for a small adjusting company in Northeast Ohio.