BILLINGS— A new Billings resident captured wind and lightning video of Thursday night’s thunderstorm from his patio balcony.
“The trees were bending sideways. I was getting almost blown off my patio balcony,” said Jason Lawrence.
Watch stormy video below:
One of the videos showed pieces of roof blowing off the soon-to-open Rocky Mountain Car Wash at 4221 Kari Lane.
“I started hearing some banging noise, and I knew it wasn't thunder,” said Lawrence. “And I swung my camera around just in time to start seeing the metal roofing pieces blowing off the car wash behind me.”
Lawrence said police and firefighters soon showed up after to assess the damage.
“Somebody must have called it in. And then a couple minutes after that, the fire department showed up to probably inspect for any damage,” he told MTN.
A contractor overseeing construction at the car wash told MTN there was no notable damage to the roof.
Lawrence told MTN he moved to Billings from Washington state two months ago.
“We’d get thunderstorms moving in because, you know, the Cascades and Olympics would bring in some weather, but not like the lightning and the cloud formations that you get here,” said Lawrence.
Forecasters predict more thunderstorms will hit Billings next week.
Heather Peters, owner of Anvil Insurance in Billings, shared tips on what to do if your property suffers storm damage.
“Hire a trusted contractor to come and take a look for you and just see if it's something that can be fixed really easily,” said Peters. “You don't want to have an open claim on your record that's not going to result in a payout or that's going to result in a really small payout, because that can harm your rates going forward and your insurability.”
She also advised people prevent damage before it happens.
“Your trampolines and your yard furniture and things like that— (plus) 50 mile an hour winds, those things can cause a lot of damage,” said Peters. “One thing that I always like to tell homeowners is if you can prevent a claim, that's really the best thing. We're going to try to get ahead of them: trimming overhanging tree branches, trimming back trees that might be brushing against the roof are going to wear out the roof.”
MTN measured wind gusts from the Billings-Logan International Airport Thursday night to be going 54 miles per hour.
