BRUSH — A weekend that started with a celebration ended with a hospital visit after a family was pelted with hail during a severe storm in Brush Sunday afternoon.
That storm Sunday included two EF-2 tornadoes and large, damaging hail. Twenty people were taken to the hospital in Brush, with one patient in critical condition.
Denver resident Sharon White, along with her friend Bill Airsman and her grandchildren, were passing through Brush on their way home from a wedding in Nebraska when the storm started forming.
“As we were going down the highway...you could see clouds, you could see the darkness that was further ahead,” White said.
Soon, the rain started to pour. The group decided to pull over and park their vehicle on the side of the road to wait for the weather to pass. White said they then heard tornado sirens sounding.
“All of a sudden this big huge [gust] of wind, and then every right-side window was just busted in little tiny pieces,” White said. “Then the hail came down… they were huge, like tennis balls.”
With most the windows already broken, the group inside the car had little coverage from the hail. They crouched down and covered their heads, trying to protect themselves from the storm. Airsman folded his body over White’s grandson.
“It was like it would never end, even though it was only a few minutes,” he said. “When you’re getting pelted like that, all you can think about is keeping your wits about yourself.”
“I was scared to death,” White added. “As the wind came, [hail] came harder and harder and kept hitting and hitting, and it seemed like forever.”
White said she could only think of her grandkids. She tried to reassure them from her spot in the front of the vehicle.
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“I kept telling them, ‘You’re going to be ok,’” she said. “In my heart, I didn’t know that, and I couldn’t let them know that.”
Eventually the storm passed, and the hail stopped. Even though the car was destroyed, Airsman drove the destroyed car to the nearest hospital so the group could be treated for their injuries. White said everyone suffered injuries, but hers were the worst and even required stitches.
“I stop and I think, ‘This could have been so much worse,’” White said. “Someone in that car could have been killed.
Two days later, she and Airsman still have bruises on their heads, necks, arms and backs. They expect it will take weeks to heal.
"Today I went home and with my full-length mirror…I thought, ‘How did I make it?’” White said. “I’m so thankful.”
