There, State Farm Insurance is packing in appointments — having brought in 60 adjusters from out of state — to assess and compensate clients who had hail crack their windshields, ding their hoods or even shatter their side mirrors and other trim.

Checks — average claim: $3,000 — are cut on the spot, unless clients want adjusters to arrange for repairs. State Farm is counting on receiving about 600 auto claims from the Lawrence area, enough to justify setting up a temporary “cat” center, a regular occurrence for an insurance catastrophe of such magnitude.

“On the hail line, they can set up appointments every 12 minutes,” said Sarah Dillmon, who works in the Lawrence office of agent Bob Carlson. “They bring the car in, put it under the fluorescent lights so that every dent is more visible. You can get everything done right then.

Other major insurers were taking similar approaches Thursday. Among them were American Family Insurance, which moved into the parking lot outside the former Moon Bar, northwest of Ninth and Iowa streets; and Farm Bureau Insurance, which set up shop inside Building 1 at the Douglas County 4-H Fairgrounds, on Harper Street in east Lawrence.

The goal: See as many clients as possible, get them their money as quickly as possible and move on to the next concentration center of weather-related claims whenever possible.

American Family is expecting to see anywhere from 500 to 600 auto claims in the Lawrence area, plus another 200 to 300 from area homeowners. The company has five adjusters in town for each category.

Such responses to a storm are not surprising, said Charlene Bailey, a spokesperson for the Kansas Insurance Department. Kansas has more hailstorms than any other state in the country, and companies don’t hesitate to take care of business when one of those storms strikes a populated area.

State Farm, the state’s largest insurer of homes and vehicles in Kansas, estimated that Sunday’s storm will be expected to cost the company $25.5 million in auto claims and another $40 million in homeowners’ claims. That’s because of Lawrence’s damage and an even larger number of damage claims in the Wichita area, Dillmon said.

A friend of mine who makes the most delectable, mouth-watering scones first told me about Lawson Brothers Farm. She would regularly trek out to the little farm two miles east of Vinland and pluck berries fresh off the canes, filling baskets with vine-ripened blackberries and raspberries. I finally saw the historical homestead at her wedding, where the lush, natural setting served as a picturesque backdrop.... Full story.

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