DCI Sports Editor travels through hail storm to get story

When DCI Sports Editor Chris Schad left his house in Rochester last Tuesday to cover Hayfield’s Baseball Section Championship Game in Austin, the weather was perfectly fine.
But like many people in South East Minnesota that evening, their commutes home turned out to be anything but pleasant.
The weather turned from fair to worse quickly that evening, with hail coming down, heavy rain, thunder and lighting, strong winds and even a tornado being spotted in Rochester.
But nonetheless, him along with other reporters in the area were there to get the story.
“When I left town, the weather app on my phone said there were only clouds expected in Austin. What it failed to tell me that the clouds would be black and bring forth a massive storm. The game I drove to cover was suspended after two innings and I sprinted to the car to try to drive home. Between Austin and Rochester, the heavens opened up and waves of water started coming down on my windshield,” Schad said.
Thinking that may have been the worst of the storm, that wasn’t the case as he then experienced hail coming down making driving conditions very difficult.
“Then came the hail. Then came the cars that were pulled over on the side of the road, but I thought I should just get it over with. I don't think the hail was the softball sized that Dodge Center got, but it still was coming down pretty good.”
Also driving out in inclement weather, was DCI Advertising Specialist Blair Lovig, who left the DCI office in Kasson, right before the weather became bad. His mission was to pick up inserts in Dodge Center.
His experience was like a few others in the area, who not only had the unfortunate luck of driving through the inclement weather, he also experienced hail damage to his new vehicle.
To check out different weather related photos from last week check them out on the DCI Facebook page.