STAUNTON, Ill. — Loaded up in two cars, Jack Hart and six of his family members were on their way from Springfield to Edwardsville, Illinois.
The family was headed to his sister's ballet recital at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
By the time the caravan hit Staunton, the sky opened up.
"All of a sudden you hear this giant boom and this hail hits our car," said Hart.
Not a run-of-the-mill thunderstorm either, Hart said he saw hail the size of softballs "sounded like someone took a metal bat straight to your car."
The drivers were hoping to make it under an overpass, but a big rig blocked the road.
"When you are out there on the Interstate with no covering, you just have to let the hail hit you," said Hart. "Scary out there in the open and exposed to everything."
The Harts were not alone, Jack took this video of cars in worse shape when the hail stopped.
Hart described the post-storm scene.
"Probably 50 to 100 cars had their windshields broken through. There was a bunch of glass everywhere. (The) interstate was shut down, cars scattered in ditches ... it just looked a mess. Almost like a tornado went through, but it wasn't a tornado, it was just a bunch of hail that hit everything."
Hail broke through the windshield of the car he was in, sending small shards of glass into the cabin.
"Just glass shards everywhere," Hart said. "it was just a complete, complete mess."
The car was driven a little further and left behind in Edwardsville. Hart said the rest of the family crammed into the car with less damage.
"We all were piled into one car, being a clown car on the way back home," he said.
As for the sister's ballet recital, they were headed to in the first place, Hart said they made it just in the nick of time.
