2006 Accord $187/month2006 CR-V LX $195/month By Tom SpaldingFour weeks after the Good Friday hailstorm, Central Indiana residents are being told it could be months before their damaged cars and homes can be repaired.

One auto body shop is so swamped it has a team of workers from Brazil doing hail-related repairs. The work in some shops is being scheduled as far out as July and August.Roofers and businesses repairing siding and windows also report record traffic stemming from the April 14 storm.Property and casualty insurers have reported more than 40,000 claims statewide, according to Marty Wood of the Insurance Institute of Indiana. More than 75 percent of those claims are from Central Indiana.Stuart Lowry, whose century-old Indianapolis home was tattooed during the hailstorm, is feeling lucky despite his daunting repair list: gutters, windows, and every shingle on his roof. His preliminary bill: $15,000."I feel pretty good about the fact that we have got people coming -- pretty soon," said Lowry.But when might those repairs be complete? He doesn't know. Lowry thinks it might not happen until the fall."It's the worst I've ever seen," said Andy Roseboom, an Avon-based contractor. "Everybody is saying the same thing. I probably have 100 roofs to do right now. Normally I'd only have 20.""We're scheduled all the way to the first week of July, and we're still taking quite a few (requests) a day," said Donnie Moorehouse of Moorehouse Body Shop on Troy Avenue.Even people who have received insurance checks are finding they have to schedule repairs two or three months out. In some cases, damage appraisers are setting up appointments on Sundays to meet the workload.State Farm Insurance still has a significant backlog of homeowner claims, said spokeswoman Missy Lundberg. State Farm insures about one in five homes and one in four cars in Indiana.Of the 14,500 hail-related claims it received from Indiana, State Farm has cleared 5,000 for repairs.During the storm, trained spotters and other weather observers reported hail ranging from pea-sized to as large as golf balls and chicken eggs.Two-inch hailstones pierced automobile windshields and cracked vinyl siding on buildings near 71st Street West and Georgetown Road; 13/4-inch stones were reported near Camby and Beech Grove.Because hail events are not measured like rain or floods by the National Weather Service, it is hard to put the storm into historical perspective."It's not uncommon to see hail," said Mike Shartran, data acquisition program manager at the National Weather Service. "But to see strong storms that produce golf- and baseball-size hail, that is not a common occurrence."Hoosiers in the auto and home repair businesses say the hail damage is rivaled only by storms in 1996 and 1989.About 375 vehicles on the Honda West lot on West 38th Street near I-65 needed minor repairs to remove small dents; 400 vehicles at Family Buick Mitsubishi near North Shadeland Avenue and I-465 also needed touch-ups."What was unusual in this case was it was a wider path and it hit a lot of consumers," said Scot Davis, CEO and owner of Family.According to the Indiana attorney general's office, state law says auto dealers must disclose a vehicle's hail damage to customers if the damage exceeds 4 percent of the vehicle's price.Policyholders have to weigh the price of repair. There are out-of-pocket expenses as well as deductibles and the possibility of rising insurance premiums.Linda Lee is, perhaps, like countless other storm victims -- unsure of her next step.Lee, 66, who lives in an apartment complex in the 6400 block of Hoover Road in Indianapolis, showed off her green 2000 Honda Accord, which is dotted with scores of dime-size dimples. She counted at least 44 depressions on the trunk."I haven't tried to see where I'll get it repaired. I might not get it repaired," she said.The Better Business Bureau of Central Indiana is worried about storm-chasing scam artists."I applaud people who have been able to wait and to be patient and get a contract with a local business," said Linda Carmody, president and chief executive of the local BBB. The good news, she said, is that cars are drivable and homes are generally livable, so "it's worth waiting to deal with those good folks."Indianapolis residents Steve and Joan Shank took their vehicles to Church Brothers Collision Repair in Greenwood, 17 miles south of their home, where damage wasn't quite so severe."If I had waited for the Downtown shop where I got the estimates, it would have been the last week of June," she said. "They were already booked."

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