Blaine County Resident’s Workshop Roof Collapses from Heavy Snow Load
BELLEVUE, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) - A Blaine County resident’s workshop roof came crashing down after a snow storm left it loaded with heavy snow.
“Where we’re situated here we get all the storms that come across the Camas Prairie and they just funnel right down into this area from Picabo up into here on Baseline. We got such an accumulation you could just hear things starting to pop and creak.
But it laid down a lot of snow in very little amount of time and it was very heavy. This shop was built in the 1940s and it’s gone through a lot of winters and everything but this one finally took her down,” said Chris Martin, local resident.
Martin first bought his place in 1970 and he says the storms are getting warmer and wetter over time. That makes the snow heavier and unfortunately with this last storm, the old shop just couldn’t hold the load.
“It’s going to hurt. We’re not going to be able to anything about it until probably spring because of the amount of snow that we’ve gotten. Once we can get in there and start assessing things I hope, you know, there’s a lot of tools in there, carpentry tools and everything, so hopefully none of that got hurt too bad,” said Martin.
Blaine County has released a guide for snow loads and roof stability.