CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – First came the hail, thunder and lightning, then came the ringing – of telephones.

Almost immediately after fast-moving thunderstorms whipped golf-ball sized hail from the sky, denting cars and smashing windows, the phones started ringing at insurance and glass companies in and around Exeter, one of the towns worst hit by Tuesday’s midday storms.

Janet Macomber, an Exeter-based commercial insurance representative, said the phone lines at her office lit up around 1 p.m. Tuesday and did not stop ringing until well past closing.

“They were here til like 9:15 last night taking claims,” she said. Many of the claims were for damaged and shattered windshields. The rush continued Wednesday morning.

“We’ve already done a couple hundred claims this morning … we’ve got four lines and they’re all on,” she said before hanging up to take another call.

Auto glass companies were in a similar frenzy.

“Crazy, crazy. Just glass – front, back, you name it. We’re talking like 60 calls, all in Exeter, just in the last 15 hours,” Jessica Small, a glass company customer service representative said Wednesday morning.

Lightning strikes Tuesday brought down a tree at a YMCA camp in Kingston, started a house fire in Northwood and was suspected of causing fires in Wilmot, Kensington and Sutton. Heavy rain and thunder sent beachgoers running for cover at Hampton Beach.

In Exeter, one of the towns hardest hit by May’s flooding, hail shattered glass in a historic house and helped collapse the roof of a Walgreen’s drugstore.

“The inventory was a total loss,” said fire chief Brian Comeau.

Gov. John Lynch visited the damaged store Tuesday and promised help.

“I’m here to extend my offer to help out the town however I can,” he said.

Lynch spokeswoman Pamela Walsh said Wednesday the state would begin a damage assessment, though it seemed unlikely totals would meet the threshold to qualify for aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“We’re going to do the evaluation. It’s uncertain whether we’d meet the FEMA guidelines,” she said.

Auto dealers in Exeter reported inventory damages in the millions of dollars.

“It will be in the millions, that’s for sure,” said Foss Motors sales manager Dave Andonian.

He said 300 cars in the lot were damaged.

Public Service Company of New Hampshire said the storms caused about 900 power outages, mostly on the Seacoast.

No serious injuries were reported, though authorities blamed lightning for the injuries of a man who was working on a basement boiler in Hampstead during the storm, according to the New Hampshire Union Leader.

The sudden storms also jolted nerves.

“It was the whitest lightning I’ve ever seen,” Northwood resident Don Manter, whose neighbor’s house was struck, told the Concord Monitor.

The National Weather Service on Tuesday tracked severe thunderstorms moving east across southern New Hampshire. Around 12:30 p.m., it issued a tornado warning for the towns of Rye, Greenland and Hampton. A weather service meteorologist said radars detected a tornado rotating high in the storm clouds.

The weather service also was warning of more heavy rain Wednesday into Thursday, with the possibility in Cheshire and Hillsborough counties of flash floods, damaging winds, large hail and the potential of tornadoes. It said strong thunderstorms were possible in a wide area from the White Mountains through central New Hampshire to the Massachusetts border.