The Wal-Mart in question is right up the street. The day the snow stopped I
went there just before it closed to try to find a portable heater because my
house furnace was on the fritz and there had been no heat in the house all
weekend. They had no heaters left in stock. There was 30 inches of snow on
that roof then. A few days later with the addition of 2 or so inches of
rain the roof started to sag and they evacuated it without injury. People
in line at the Giant food store were complaining about the K-Mart store
which is closing because, I guess, the area isn't big enough for both a
Wal-Mart and a K-Mart. They were saying that it had water dripping from the
roof in sheets and every isle had more buckets on the floor than items on
the shelves. The whole area of collapsed structures in the list below is in
my basic neighborhood, if you consider the area around the capitol beltway
to be a "neighborhood".
The greenhouse was warm and toasty and survived this particular tantrum of
nature without hitch. Knock on wood.
My greenhouse was built with the maximum snow load in mind. In 1998 or 1999
I was in Key West Florida and watching on the weather channel when another
30 inch snow storm closed the area around Washington. I remember saying as
I watched the snow totals on the weather map that year that when I build my
greenhouse I will have to take these amounts into consideration. I built
something called a "Northerner" with a high pitched roof and reinforced
structure just in case it ever snowed that much again.
Some of you may know Roger Cole. His new greenhouse collapsed in the snow
storm last week. He lives midway between Washington DC and Baltimore.
"Rob Halgren" wrote in message
...
oh i'm sure this didn't make the news anywhere; oh you mean the
walmart-! ;-) that was in leesburg (VA) (and i was responding to ray
and thinking "Al"--sorry ray! ;-) ; the toys r us in lanham (MD)
collapsing was all over the news; a barn in poolesville (MD) caved
in; the O st market in DC came in; a bunch of stray schools in DC and
MD either caved in or were threatening to; they were using snow
blowers on the roofs out in garrett county (MD); nobody (human or
equine) hurt anywhere that i know of. roofs in my neighborhood (MD)
were leaking all over the place; the local giant grocery store was
also raining inside on saturday. :-)
Now where I'm from (originally), we mocked people with flat roofs, and
we had a device called a snow-rake. I'd recommend getting one. It is a
long handled rake, and you pull snow off the roof with it. Fun, and
darn cold work. Imagine standing under the snow you are pulling down...
*grin* I suspect in some areas you might only use it once every 10
years, but when you need one you need one.
I'm glad nobody was hurt. People think that the danger in a blizzard is
limited to being out on the road, but there are plenty of ways to hurt
yourself by staying inside. Snow covers your furnace exhaust - big
trouble. Too much snow on the roof - we see what happens there. I
couldn't get my door open yesterday, and we'd only had 8" or so (with
weird drifting). Had to go out a door I never use. Glad I have two...
--
Rob's Rules: http://www.msu.edu/~halgren
1) There is always room for one more orchid
2) There is always room for two more orchids
2a. See rule 1
3) When one has insufficient credit to purchase
more orchids, obtain more credit