Heavy Snow Collapses Roofs Across the Northeast

The snow, oh, the snow. Record snowfall in the Northeast this winter has closed schools, knocked out power and grounded flights, and the winter white landscape has since turned into a dirty mess.

But the danger from all that snow that perhaps hits closest to home is from its weight. The heavy snow has collapsed and threatened dozens of roofs across New England, where flat roofs are common.

In Middletown, Conn., last week, Bessie Bianco watched as a 120-year-old brick building on Main Street collapsed as its roof buckled under the pressure of a reported 4 feet of snow. Two men working in the building fled when they heard creaking.

"We kind of thought the end of the world was coming," Bianco, 24, who works across the street, told The New York Times. "The older generations say they've never seen anything like this. It's really daunting. It's tiring."

It was one of many that dotted an interactive map of roof collapses on the website of The Middletown Press. Roofs fell at other businesses and homes, threatening not only people but animals over the past few weeks after the series of seemingly never-ending storms.

About 85,000 egg-laying hens perished in late January when heavy snow felled a building at Kofkoff Egg Farm in Bozrah, Conn., The Associated Press reported.

Back-to-back storms and the later ice storm took down the roofs of more than 130 barns, other farm and equipment buildings and greenhouses in Connecticut since late December, AP said. The collapses killed more than 12 dairy cows, two horses and a calf.

Livestock have also perished in upstate New York, where at least 60 cows died in a roof collapse in Northumberland, N.Y., and in New Hampshire and Vermont.

The last big storm was about a week ago, but more than a dozen roofs collapsed in Massachusetts on Monday, The Boston Globe said, bringing the number of buildings damaged by snow to 149. Nobody's been seriously injured, though some people fled in the nick of time.


The roof of a two-story building in Norwood, Mass., collapsed Monday, pinning a firefighter briefly.

"It just came in on me," firefighter George Geary told the Globe. "It just happened so fast, and the room was full of snow and metal. I just couldn't believe that everything fell and I was stuck in the corner."

Last week, the side of a commercial building in Easton, Mass., caved in after the roof collapsed, a spectacular site caught on videotape.

Some schools have been evacuated for fear their roofs may give out, upsetting parents whose children have had so many snow days that they may lose part or all of spring break, reports say.

Schools in three Massachusetts districts were closed as snow was removed and the buildings were being inspected, the Globe said Tuesday.

"There's just a tremendous amount of pressure up there," Jack Howland, a maintenance worker at Georgetown's Perley Elementary School, told the Globe. The school had a partial roof collapse last week, and crews were using shovels and a crane to remove snow.

State officials urged people to remove big mounds of snow.

"With some of these structures, we just don't know how much more they can take," Peter Judge, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, told the Globe.

Schools are especially at risk because they often have flat roofs. "For the most part, they are big old rectangles," Judge said.

Homeowners and crews alike have been working to clear snowy roofs throughout the region. This winter gave rise to demand for roof rakes, long-handled tools that allow people to clear snow without having to climb onto a slippery, snow-covered roof.

Roofer Ryan Ward worked into darkness Monday night, clearing snow from the roof of Bill's Sport Shop in Middletown.

Ward, 30, told the Times: "Everybody knows that if you don't get it done right away, someone else will take the job or the building will collapse."