April 18, 2026
By TIM HUNDT
WESTBY Wis. — Four days after hail hammered Westby with ice chunks big enough to shatter windshields and punch holes in roofs the town is still digging out from what local businesses describe as an unprecedented wave of destruction to cars and homes.
At Sleepy Hollow Auto and Nuzum Lumber the phones have not stopped ringing as residents try to figure out what to do with totaled vehicles leaking roofs and busted siding after the April 14 storm
Sleepy Hollow’s lots are jammed with damaged vehicles and staff are working long days to help customers sort through insurance claims and transportation problems.
Lavon “Spanky” Felton of Sleepy Hollow said almost everything he is seeing is a total loss.
“Out of the 110 estimates we have written in the last two or three days there is one or two that maybe possibly might be repairable,” said Felton. “The rest of them are all totaled”
Unprecedented damage to cars and homes
Felton and Auto Body Estimator Bill Freiberg said what happened in Westby is far beyond a typical hailstorm. It is the scale that has overwhelmed body shops tow companies rental fleets and insurance adjusters.
“Everybody knows the size of the hail that hit Westby,” said Freiberg. “These vehicles are heavily damaged. It is unlike any hail storm I have ever been through from a collision standpoint”.
Until the morning after the storm Felton thought he was looking at hundreds of damaged cars. Then the tow trucks kept coming.
“Up until the next morning I thought there was hundreds of cars involved,” said Felton. “And then I realized there is probably over a thousand because we have got a hundred and some of these cars parked here just here that we have towed in”.
At one point three tow trucks were pulling in at the same time each loaded with multiple vehicles.
“There were three tow trucks pulling in at the same time with multiple vehicles on them,” said Freiberg. “Put them back there. We will get to them as fast as we can”.
On one recent day Sleepy Hollow picked up 78 vehicles and sold 30 to 40 cars while trying to cover transportation needs for families who suddenly had no drivable vehicles.
Nuzum Lumber manager Warren Weibel saw similar devastation to houses with roofs siding and windows scarred across town.
“That was a lot of damage and I feel for all those people,” said Weibel. “I was fortunate I was not in that area but man oh man that has been tough for a lot of people”.
How Sleepy Hollow is handling the onslaught
Sleepy Hollow’s main lots and overflow areas are crowded with storm damaged vehicles many of them undriveable and waiting for insurance decisions. Tow trucks have been running almost nonstop since the storm.
Inside Sleepy Hollow office staff said they are handling the work almost like triage in a mass casualty incident. One sign was the way staff organizes keys and paperwork. What used to be a normal workflow is now something closer to emergency room.
“We had the buckets left from Easter and we put them to good use by separating them into obvious total losses and yet to look at,” said Freiberg.
Felton said his team is trying to balance writing estimates helping people value their cars for total loss settlements and simply giving customers a way to get to work and school.
“A lot of these people lost two or three cars,” said Felton. “Some of these people do not have any car and we had 60 or 70 rental cars and within nine o’clock that next morning they were gone”.
To keep people moving he has been willing to put customers into vehicles before the insurance checks arrive.
“We have been selling cars to people the last three days and these people cannot pay us because they do not have their insurance check,” said Felton. “We just have to strike a deal write it down on a piece of paper and say I will see you in two or three weeks”.
He has even offered temporary arrangements when that is the only way a family can get back on the road.
“If there is something here that I have that works for you and we can strike a deal I am going to put you in the car,” said Felton. “I will rent it to you for one dollar and in two or three weeks when you get all this settled come in and pay me”.
The dealership’s three tow trucks are running constantly and trade ins have essentially stopped because so many vehicles are heading to salvage yards instead of back onto the lot.
“We are not taking a trade in on anything because they are all going to the junkyard,” said Felton. “Usually you figure 50 percent of the cars you sell are going to have a trade in coming in and now you got another car to sell. It is great to have business but it is just a lot of cars leaving here”.
Advice on working with insurance companies
Felton and Freiberg said one of the most important steps for storm victims is to slow down and avoid quick settlements that do not reflect the true value of a totaled vehicle.
Felton warned against simply taking an insurance company’s offer based on cellphone photos when the car is clearly destroyed.
“One of the biggest things I can say is do not sign and do not settle anything if the car is a total loss,” said Felton. “You need to be informed and not just settle for whatever number they throw out there”.
He urged people to bring in their vehicle information so local experts can help estimate its real retail value before negotiations.
“It takes me two or three minutes to do a value on that car and say what is the retail value,” said Felton. “You need to know what that number is and if their number is fair great”.
Freiberg said the claim process will take time because the storm hit thousands of vehicles and homes at once.
“We just encourage people to be patient,” said Freiberg. “We are all working hard to try to get you serviced as soon as possible but it is going to go slower than it had just because of volume”.
He noted that this is not a typical fender bender that affects one family at a time.
“This is for some families all their vehicles,” said Freiberg. “It happened to a whole community of thousands of people and literally thousands of vehicles”.
Advice on deciding if a totaled vehicle is worth buying back
Some customers are tempted to buy back their totaled vehicle and keep driving it especially for farm use. Felton said that almost never works out well and can create long term problems.
“I have had a lot of people come up to me and say this is a really good vehicle I am going to buy it back,” said Felton. “That almost never works well”.
He explained that once an insurance company pays out on a total loss and sells the vehicle back the title becomes branded as salvage which follows the vehicle forever.
“The insurance company says we think your truck is worth fifteen thousand dollars retail value and we are going to pay you fifteen thousand,” said Felton. “But then this title is stamped and it has a branded title from this day forward so it can never be sold without that salvage mark”.
For someone who truly needs a low cost farm truck with no plans to resell the numbers can sometimes make sense. For most daily drivers he said the damage from this storm is simply too extreme.
“If you are just going to keep it on the farm and run it that is fine put a windshield in it,” said Felton. “But if this is going to be your daily driver the damage that is on these cars is way too great”.
Freiberg agreed that in most cases it is better to take a fair settlement and move on.
“There is a lot of hidden costs where it is just much better economically to just get rid of it,” said Freiberg. “They think they are saving themselves money and they are really not in the long run”.
Advice on rental coverage and staying mobile
One of the hardest lessons many residents are learning is the value of rental reimbursement coverage on their insurance policies.
Felton said he has seen a growing number of customers who declined rental coverage to save a few dollars a month and are now paying out of pocket while their claims drag on.
“One thing I want to add is it is super important to make sure that your insurance policy has rental coverage and rental reimbursement,” said Felton. “When something like this happens if you do not have that you pay thirty or forty or fifty dollars a day out of your pocket”.
With local rental fleets tapped out even families with coverage are waiting in line for vehicles. Felton said Sleepy Hollow started with about 60 to 70 rental cars and they disappeared within hours the morning after the storm.
Freiberg said the lack of transportation is hitting some households especially hard.
“This is for some families all your transportation,” said Freiberg. “You are all going to show up at the same time and you are all not going to get waited on immediately but we will get to you and we are making good progress”.
Advice on repair versus replacement
In the body shop Felton said the nature of the damage and even the metal used in modern vehicles makes many hail beaten cars bad candidates for repair.
He noted that steel panels have some memory and can sometimes be reshaped while aluminum panels used on many newer trucks do not respond as well.
“Steel has memory and wants to come back to where it was,” said Felton. “Aluminum has no memory and just wants to have a dent”.
On some vehicles the roof and pillars would need to be cut off and replaced to repair the structural damage. That kind of repair can be technically sound but hard for owners to accept.
“You cut the pillars and you basically weld a new top on that car,” said Felton. “Do you want that car back or would you just soon get a different one”.
Even when a vehicle is technically repairable the cost can rival the price of a replacement. Felton said customers with newer high value vehicles are facing estimates that run into tens of thousands of dollars.
“You have a vehicle that is worth sixty or seventy thousand dollars and maybe it is a brand new car and there is forty thousand dollars worth of damage,” said Felton. “We are running into them as well”.
For those whose vehicles are repairable but who do not want to wait months for body work there may be another route.
“If you trade that car in now you are going to get fixed price for it,” said Felton. “Maybe you can just come in here today and trade that car if you want to”.
Advice for people with only liability or limited coverage
Felton said there is another group of people who are facing a very different problem. Many had only liability insurance and no comprehensive coverage so their storm damage is not covered at all.
“For every one of these cars we have towed in that had full coverage there is another one that does not,” said Felton. “Those folks are looking at those and saying how can I make this drivable and just keep running it”.
For them the focus becomes basic safety such as replacing shattered windshields and rear glass so the car can be legally driven even if the body remains dented.
“We can put a windshield in it and unfortunately it has dents all over it but it is going to run just like it did last week,” said Felton. “We do have windshields and back glasses and we can get those put in fairly quickly”.
Advice on home repairs and building supplies
While Sleepy Hollow is buried in vehicles Nuzum Lumber is bracing for a surge in demand for building materials as homeowners and contractors move from emergency patches to full repairs.
Weibel said the first rush has been for foam board tarps and sheeting to close up holes and keep homes watertight.
“The big push was just patching up holes and making things watertight,” said Weibel. “Once we get into the siding and the windows and all the roofing it is going to take a lot of manpower and time”.
He expects the next three weeks to bring a wave of orders for shingles siding and windows as insurance adjusters finish their assessments and contractors start full repair jobs.
“The big push for siding and shingles and windows has not happened yet,” said Weibel. “I would say the next three weeks that is when we are going to see that kind of activity”.
For now Nuzum is trying to stay ahead by ordering key materials while also steering homeowners to start with their insurance agent and a trusted contractor.
“Their first thing is going to be talking to their insurance agents and then of course talking to a contractor at some point and then getting to us to get supplies,” said Weibel. “It does not sound like supplies will be in short supply so I think we will be okay”.
He said local contractors are already spending their days in Westby writing estimates and checking damage.
“They are all very busy running,” said Weibel. “Most of them are in Westby all day long every day now for the last few days”.
Nuzum is also looking for cost saving options as some building products rise in price during the spring building season.
“We are actually trying to find products that are going to be a good deal right now,” said Weibel. “Some of the products will be going up in price but we are finding some alternatives that are going to be a little less money”.
Weibel advised homeowners to call if they have any questions or concerns about securing supplies or finding contractors.
Report your damage
In response to the severe weather, United Way 2-1-1 has been officially activated. Residents and business owners across Vernon County are encouraged to call 2-1-1 to report damages to their properties, which will help local emergency management gain vital situational awareness regarding the full extent of the community’s unmet needs.
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