Baseball-sized hail fell in Sanford, Man., last Friday. (Submitted by Jennifer Wiebe)

Manitoba Public Insurance Corp. has received 4,600 hail-related vehicle claims after a storm dropped baseball-sized hail across southern Manitoba last week — and the claims are still coming in.

Company spokesman Brian Smiley said employees staffing the public-claims telephone lines have struggled to keep up with the volume of calls.

"We would just encourage the people who do have a claim — if your vehicle is drivable, meaning your windshield is not smashed out — you have some time to open your claim," he said.

"You don't have to do it right away. If you encounter a busy signal, perhaps be a little bit patient and call back within a couple of days."

Smiley said the publicly owned auto insurer won't have a final tally on the number of hail-damage claims until the end of the week. He urged customers with minor hail damage claims to be patient.

MPIC estimates 50 per cent of the claims following last Friday's storm came from the Winnipeg area, 25 per cent from Brandon and the rest from places such as Steinbach and LaSalle.

In 2007, a furious hail storm in the Dauphin area precipitated 14,000 claims, and MPIC paid out $53 million to vehicle owners for hail damage.

Historically in the Winnipeg area, one of biggest hail storms was in July 1996, when there were 24,000 claims for hail-damaged vehicles, resulting in a $53 million payout.

There is still no word on the extent of crop damage brought by the storm.