Softball-Sized Hailstones Smash Homes And Cars In Texas And Oklahoma (40 Pics)

"We were in an interior closet with our children. It was eerily still outside and then we heard a loud noise and the house shook a bit with the first big hailstone," Rebecca Gilliam, a resident of Hondo, Texas, told CNN.

Gilliam said the hail was so big and had so much force that it came through the roof in many areas and even sheet rock on interior walls in a few places.

"Many times, the storms impact more rural areas in this part of the country, but in this case, the largest hail targeted large populated areas like San Antonio, Forth Worth, and Oklahoma City, so more property was damaged," Hennen explained.

Another severe thunderstorm produced significant hail in and around the Norman, Oklahoma area. Marek Cornett is one of the people whose property it had attacked—her rental home got hit really bad. "This storm was a very small one but very intense," Cornett told Bored Panda. "There were 70-80 mph winds which is why the gigantic hail was essentially thrown through the windows. The entire city of Norman (3rd largest city in Oklahoma) is dealing with the ramifications right now. Windows, roofs, cars all have damage."

Cornett the area has at least 4-5 severe weather storms a year, and most often they include tornados. "This one was just an intense hail storm with wind."

The weather unfolding over the Plains on Wednesday was “nearly the perfect setup for severe storms with hail,” AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Bill Deger said.

“There was plenty of energy in the atmosphere, 'fuel' from sunshine, warm conditions, and moisture flowing in from the Gulf of Mexico,” Deger explained. “The end result was very large, damaging hailstones in Texas and Oklahoma.”

“It’s not a surprising event to get big hail storms this time of the year across Texas and Oklahoma," he added, "but what was remarkable about it was that we had the intersection of big hail storms in areas where there are a lot of people and businesses."

Hail makes up the highest number of insurance claims each year and can exceed $10 billion in losses annually, the Weather Channel reported.