MEC&F Expert Engineers : SNOW COLLAPSES ROOFS OF SEVERAL NEW ENGLAND BUILDINGS. PROPERTY DAMAGE (MOSTLY WATER DAMAGE) FROM ICE DAMS IS THE LEADING INSURANCE CLAIM BEING FILED BY NEW ENGLANDERS

Sunday, February 15, 2015

SNOW COLLAPSES ROOFS OF SEVERAL NEW ENGLAND BUILDINGS. PROPERTY DAMAGE (MOSTLY WATER DAMAGE) FROM ICE DAMS IS THE LEADING INSURANCE CLAIM BEING FILED BY NEW ENGLANDERS






In Auburn, the roof of a vacant building that was once used as a sportsplex came down around 5:57 a.m. Tuesday, officials said.

Several buildings collapsed around the state Tuesday morning, their roofs caving under the weight of snow that has accumulated through three major storms in recent weeks.

One of the incidents damaged a building that housed a rhinestone-encrusted grand piano once owned by Liberace.
Rockland firefighters arrived at 217 Centre Ave. at 6:30 a.m. to find large portions of the roof of the Piano Mill caved in, Fire Chief Scott Duffey said. The store, which sells various musical instruments and offers music lessons, was empty at the time, Duffey said.

The collapse caused “thousands upon thousands of dollars’ worth of damage,” Duffey said.
The owner of the store told the Associated Press the rhinestone-covered grand piano wasn’t damaged.




Rob Norris said after an inspection Tuesday that the piano wasn’t located in the section where the roof caved in. The Liberace piano has 88,888 rhinestones and has been appraised for $500,000.

The incident comes just one day after another collapse, which occurred on Weymouth Street in Rockland Monday morning. About 3½ feet of snow caused the roof of the commercial building to cave in around 8 a.m., Duffey said. People were inside the building then, but everyone escaped and there were no injuries, he said.

In Canton, employees were shoveling snow off the roof of a loading dock building Tuesday morning, when there was a partial roof collapse, Fire Chief Charles Doody said. Everyone was able to evacuate the roof immediately and no one was injured, he said.

The collapse was reported at 7:15 a.m. at 555 Turnpike St. Doody estimated 5 to 6 feet of snow had been on the roof.
The roof of a vacant building that was once used as a sportsplex came down around 5:57 a.m. in Auburn, Fire Chief Stephen Coleman Jr. said. The building at 5 Saint Mark St. had an arched dome roof with fabric material on the exterior, Coleman said. 

A building was also destroyed in Abington Tuesday morning, Fire Chief John Nuttall said. The structure at the rear of 171 Brockton Ave. had more than 2 feet of snow on the roof, he said.
“The building is a total loss,” Nuttall said.




In Hingham, the roof on the historic Lincoln Building on South Street collapsed shortly before 10 a.m., fire officials said. No injuries were reported.
As a result, police, fearing falling debris, cordoned off a one-block area in Hingham’s commercial district.

“We’ve had a lot of cancellations today,” said Stacey Tomasello, who works at a skin-care salon near the damaged building. “Usually, this is a pretty lively place. Not today.”
The three-story edifice is set to be demolished and replaced.
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HANSON BUILDING COLLAPSES DUE TO SNOW

February 13, 2015

HANSON, MASSACHUSETTS (CBS) –
A Hanson, Mass. building collapsed under the weight of snow that had built up on its roof.

Several hundred feet of roof collapsed at 775 West Washington Street on Friday morning.

Firefighters described the building as an older mill-style structure.
No one was inside the commercial building at the time of the roof collapse.
Crews were on scene throughout the morning razing the structure.

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ROOF COLLAPSE THREAT GROWING, CLOSES SCHOOL DISTRICT



February 10, 2015

WEST NEWBURY (CBS) – Multiple roofs have already collapsed under the weight of several feet of snow in Massachusetts, and the growing danger has canceled classes at one school district for the rest of the week.

Hingham police responded to a commercial building roof collapse on South Street late Tuesday morning. The top floor of the building was vacant and no one was injured.

Six schools in the Pentucket Regional School District, located in Merrimac, Groveland and West Newbury, won’t open until after February vacation because of concerns of a possible roof collapse.

On Tuesday morning, Rockland firefighters reported a roof collapse at Piano Mill, a piano store on Center Avenue. A $500,000 grand piano once owned by Liberace may have been damaged in the collapse.

A trained weather spotter in Rockland said 29 inches of snow fell during the most recent storm, according to the National Weather Service.
In Auburn, police said the roof collapsed Tuesday at Teamworks, an indoor training facility on St. Mark Street that is not currently in use. No one was inside at the time.

Seven workers were inside a sheet metal company in Rockland on Monday when the roof came crashing down, but all escaped injury.
“We heard a noise like a piece of metal twisting and all of a sudden the whole ceiling came in like a freight train,” worker Mike Scolaro told WBZ-TV. “It was scary, I won’t lie to you.”

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NH GAS STATION AWNING COLLAPSES WITH WORKERS ON TOP

February 12, 2015 12:02 PM

CONWAY, N.H. (CBS) — Two people were removing snow from atop a Conway gas station awning when it collapsed Thursday morning, police said.

The contractors were not injured in the collapse at the Irving gas station off the White Mountain Highway at 9:45 a.m., according to Conway police.

The awning came crashing down onto a black Cadillac SUV parked underneath. A man sitting in the driver’s seat was also not hurt, police said.
The SUV was damaged, according to WGME-TV.

No other injuries were reported in the incident.

Police are investigating the direct cause of the awning collapse.
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FIRE CREWS RESPOND TO ROOF COLLAPSE IN SEABROOK
No injuries reported
Published  9:35 AM EST Feb 15, 2015

SEABROOK, N.H. —A major roof collapse was reported at a strip of stores in Seabrook Sunday morning.

A major roof collapse was reported at a strip of stores in Seabrook Sunday morning.
Fire crews said the collapse happened around 8:10 a.m. at the building on Lafayette Road.

No injuries were reported.
The building inspector was at the scene soon after the collapse.

It’s believed the building houses a flooring place, a dollar store and a bar called the Chop Shop Pub.

More than a foot of snow fell in Seabrook during the blizzard.


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UNRELENTING SNOWSTORMS POSE MAJOR ROOF COLLAPSE RISK IN NEW ENGLAND.  ICE DAMS CREATE THE HIGHEST RISK FOR PROPERTY DAMAGE.



February 15, 2015

Heavy snow accumulation is causing roof collapses across New England as back-to-back storms are burying the region with near-record amounts of snow.
In Rockland, Massachusetts, a portion of the Piano Mill's roof crumbled into a showroom this month, coming close to damaging a piano priced at $500,000. However, an even larger concern is when people are inside.

New England has seen a highly unusual amount of snow this month, according to AccuWeather.com Meteorologist Tom Kines, with 2 to 4 feet accumulating in the Boston area, other parts of Massachusetts and along the eastern New England coast.

"The snow is not going to be melting any time soon," Meteorologist Stephanie Dunten told the Associated Press. "We recommend homeowners scrape any snow off their roofs to avoid overloading, as we've already seen a few roofs collapsing."
AccuWeather Forensic Meteorologist Steve Wistar said that for safety reasons home and business owners should hire contractors to remove the snow or use rakes if the roof is not too high.

"If the roof is sagging it has to be handled very carefully because the added weight of people shoveling the snow could cause a problem," said Anthony Maiocco from Maiocco Structural Engineering. "And a contractor would have more experience with safety."

In the Northeast, roofs are generally designed to support 30 pounds per square foot, Wistar said, but some roofs are built to support 40, 50 or even 100 pounds per square foot, according to the ASCE Standard Handbook.
"But 30 pounds per square foot is just a starting point, then you have to factor in the other variables," Wistar said.

The amount of snow accumulation is not always the best guide to determining how much weight snow is putting on a roof.




Weight of Snow
The inches of snow accumulation do not directly dictate the weight that is placed on a roof. The weight of snow is actually dependent on the water content, Wistar said.
One inch of water weighs 5.2 pounds per square foot, and snow can have different distributions of water content, which depend on a number of variables including outside temperature.

Wet snow weighs more than dry snow because it has a higher water content.
Dry, powdery snow weighs less and its dusty, flaky texture makes it prone to drifting, which is ideal for any roof designed for drifting.
But roofs with external roof units, such as air conditioning or parapet units, are more prone to uneven weight distribution as the snow drifts against these units instead of blowing off the roof. When powdery snow is blown in the wind, the snowflakes break apart and when they resettle they actually become more dense adding to the weight around rooftop units, Wistar said.

"When snow weighs 10 pounds per square foot that is okay, but when it starts getting into the 20s then it can be a concern for a roof," Wistar said.
Over time snow compacts and settles down, meaning the snow won't be as deep but the weight will be the same. What was once one foot of snow may become less, but the weight will not change, Wistar said.
And when temperatures rise and snowfall turns to rainfall, the snow already coating rooftops can become saturated and heavy with rain.

When the snow does begin to melt away, it can refreeze around gutters and drains under lower temperatures, trapping more melting water on the roof. The trapped water can not only leak into the home's interior, but it causes further stress on the roof.

Different roof designs are built to cope with snow differently, each one with both advantages and disadvantages.

Sloped Roofs
Gable roofs, which have two sloping sides, can become problematic in heavy wind conditions, when snow will blow from one side and settle on the other.
Some slopped roofs, with enough slope and that are short enough, can allow snow to blow from one side and then onto the ground.

But slopped roofs are also prone to ice dams, which can cause interior and roof damage.



No house insulation is perfect and as heat escapes up through the middle of the roof, it can melt away the lower layers of the snowpack. As this water migrates away from the heated center and reaches the cold eaves, or edges, of the house it can quickly freeze, Wistar said.

Other variables such as solar radiation and the home's orientation toward sunlight can impact how prone the house is to ice dams. The snow will melt in the sun but refreeze in the shade.
An ice dam can cause damage to the drainage system and gutter as it prevents other water run-off from escaping. As water is backed up behind the thick dam, it can infiltrate into the home's interior and keep unwanted weight on top of the roof.

"When you have an ice dam, you block water from going anywhere and it can sink back under the roof," said Wister. "And anywhere that water collects and freezes, the solid ice is going to be heavier."

This heavy ice can also cause stress and damage to the roof, Wistar said.
A-frame roofs, which have very steep slopes, speed up water run-off so that it doesn't have the opportunity to refreeze.
However, these sloped roofs typically aren't feasible for large industrial buildings, hospitals or any other large building.

Flat Roofs
While most roofs are not entirely flat, roofs with a level appearance allow for snow to easily blow off the roof. However, some of these roofs have external systems on the roof, including air conditioning and parapet units, which encourage snow drifts to settle around the unit.
These roofs are also less prone to ice dam formation, but the draining systems on top of the roof can freeze over trapping melting water on the roof.
Wistar said that there really is no ideal roof type to battle winter weather, and it all really comes down to the type of snow and the amount of wind.

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INSURERS BRACE FOR CLAIMS AS MORE SNOW EXPECTED TO HIT STORM-WEARY BOSTON.  THE MAJORITY OF THESE CLAIMS ARE WATER DAMAGE FROM ICE DAMS AND, TO A LESSER EXTENT, COLLAPSES

FEBRUARY 15, 2015
Since the first winter storm hit Boston at the end of January, the city has removed over 10,000 truckloads of snow after a record six feet of snowfall in the last 30 days — breaking the previous record of 58.5 inches, set in 1978.

Liberty Mutual could not share the number of claims they received as a result of the winter storms but Glenn Greenberg, director of media relations at the insurer, said the company assigned dozens of claims adjusters in the field to assist customers.



Some adjusters came in from other parts of the country to help expedite the claims process, he said, adding that the insurer had several more adjusters ready to come to the region should claims volume increase.

“The majority of these claims are water damage from ice dams and, to a lesser extent, collapses,” said Greenberg.
Boston Public Works Department (PWD) crews have continued to work around the clock to remove the record amount of snow. According to the Mayor’s Office, the snowiest month-long period on record has kept the PWD busy — 244,064 miles of roadway have been plowed in 136,652 hours and 70,051 tons of salt has been used.

Reportedly, 6,000 of the 10,000 truckloads of snow have been melted to increase capacity at the city’s snow farms. The Tide Street site has been melted to 50 percent capacity, while the Reservation Road site is at 10 percent capacity.
The total cost of the snow response to the storms in the last couple of weeks has been estimated at $30 million. According to the Mayor’s Office, the city’s annual budget for snow removal is $18.5 million.

Two more storms headed to the region this weekend are expected to add another foot or more of snow.
Total economic damages and losses as a result of U.S. winter storms during the month of January, according to Impact Forecasting, Aon Benfield’s catastrophe modeling division, were estimated at $500 million.

Winter storms caused an estimated $2.3 billion in insured losses in the U.S. in 2014, up from $1.9 billion in 2013, according to Munich Re. From 1994 to 2013 winter storms resulted in about $27 billion in U.S. insured catastrophe losses (in 2013 dollars), or more than $1 billion a year on average, according to Property Claim Services (PCS) and the Insurance Information Institute Inc.

Increased Claim Activity
Deland, Gibson Insurance Associates, an independent insurance agency in Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts, said the agency has seen a noticeable uptick in claims.
“We get two or three claims a week on average, and now we’ve seen 30-plus claims this week so far, so it’s a 10-times increase,” the agency’s vice president Tom Skelly said Thursday.
Skelly said most of the claims are property damages related to ice dams. In addition, his agency has also received a couple of claims for roof collapses due to snow and ice.



“Some people have called us and said, ‘I have a couple of buckets and the ceiling is dripping water into the buckets slowly, what should I do?’ And if they can go and break up that ice dam, they probably won’t have much of a claim,” said Skelly. “Then we have other people that have said, ‘My whole dining room ceiling has collapsed. I have a big bay window, and water is rushing in. I am throwing out buckets and buckets of water every couple of hours.'”
On the higher end, some damages related to ice dams could cost tens of thousands of dollars, he said, while on the lower end, some damages won’t cost much at all.

During the past month in Boston, “due to the accumulation of snow and then a break in the snow, and then more snow, and another break, and then another storm. We’ve got three major snowstorms of over a foot of snow at peak and those all contributed to the buildup of ice dams,” said Skelly.

While the majority of these claims are roofs and ice dams, there have also been a number of fender bender claims, he said. “The roadways are a lot narrower because of the snow and the snow piles are a lot bigger so it’s more difficult to see around the corners, so people are getting into little fender benders as well,” said Skelly.

“The widths of the roadways have narrowed considerably — there is nowhere to put the snow, so the snow is falling back on the roadways, which makes the two-lane road a one-lane road,” he said. “And the snowbanks are quite hard now, so it’s not like if you drive into a snowbank, it’s soft. You could bounce off of it into oncoming traffic. And we are seeing damages from people who aren’t taking enough precautions when they are making right or left turns on the roadway with high snowbanks.”

There is more snow coming, probably another foot in the Boston area, he noted. “Our recommendation is, clean the gutter systems up and clean everything up as quickly as you can before this next system goes through. Clear the snow and ice from the roof. Remove the snow from the roof with a roof rake, get as much weight off as possible, and let the roof shingles get exposed to the sun which will help melt the ice as well,” said Skelly.



Kaplansky Insurance Agency, a Needham, Massachusetts-based independent agency with 11 offices in the region, is also fielding ice dam-related claims.
“We’ve been getting quite a few claims and claims inquiries on ice dams — there are quite a few — where water is leaking into people’s houses. That’s mostly the claims we are getting. We are seeing an increase in ice dam claims compared to past winters,” said Scott Barudin, vice president of business development at Kaplansky Insurance.

“A lot more people are calling in for ice dams than the last winter or the previous one which was kind of a mild winter,” said Barudin. “Because we’ve had so much snow and cold weather, there is no place for the water to run. It’s just way too much snow on people’s roofs. There is so much snow on people’s roofs, and the gutters freeze, and then when it starts to thaw out a little bit there is no place for water to go so it backs up into people’s houses.”
“Clean off the roofs, get the snow off your roofs,” Barudin advised. “I know I’ve seen one house that has like 6 feet of snow on the roof. That’s a lot of snow. I am hearing more people getting roof rakes to take the snow off. You gotta be aware of your own house. Keep the gutters clean and get as much snow off your roof as possible.”

The Arbella Insurance Group, a regional property/casualty insurance company based in Quincy, Massachusetts, said its claim volume for the month of February looks to rise significantly compared to a year ago.

“If we look at our February 2015 versus February 2014, we are on track to be well more than double what we saw in February 2014 from a claim volume perspective,” said Joe Salerno, vice president of claims at the Arbella Insurance Group. 

“We are seeing a spike in the total claim volume including an increase in our auto claims as well as a significant increase in our property claim volume, driven by a high percentage of ice dam claims,” said Salerno.


Salerno said his company is seeing a high volume of three types of claims. “The first type — and the most significant that we are seeing from a frequency perspective — are ice dams,” he said. “We are also seeing a number of frozen pipe and water damage claims. And then the last that we are seeing — and fortunately so far in a very small numbers — are roof collapses.”

Salerno said ice dam claims right now easily represent 40 to 50 percent of the new claim volume that the company is seeing. “And we expect that we will continue to see ice dam claims come through the door at a high frequency as all of this snow begins to melt,” he said.


THINGS TO REMEMBER:
1.   Do not try to pass an old damage as a new one;  you will get caught.  It is rather easy to determine the new vs. old property damage;
2.   Have receipts readily available for expenses, repairs, etc.  No receipts means no claim check;  this is the rule and very few exceptions are allowed;
3.   If you do not agree with the insurance company’s investigation report and findings, feel free to hire your own expert to do the investigation and prepare your own report.  This is probably the best thing you can do for large claims;
4.   Do have in mind that the insurance company’s experts are looking for the best interest of the insurer and not yours.  Thus, as has amply been documented during the Superstorm Sandy litigation, the insurance experts will downplay your damages and either find no damage or very little damage.  This is unfortunately the game that is played.  Instead of getting upset, please do yourself a favor and hire your own expert.