WP: D.C. area homeowners struggle against melting snow
By Jura Koncius
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 14, 2010; C01
Susan Hasten had not heard of ice dams until last week. That`s when the frozen gutters in the sunroom on the back of her Bethesda home backed up and water dripped down the wall of windows. In a panic, she cooked up her own triage.
“I have a complex system of taped-up black trash bags and roaster pans to catch the water,“ said Hasten, who measured 40 inches of snow in her yard. “It feels like the whole house is sinking into a snow hole.“
Now that accumulations from two major snowstorms are subsiding, many area residents are having their own meltdowns. All that snow has started dissolving in the above-freezing temperatures of the past few days, and misery has descended on buried neighborhoods. Homeowners, still reeling from power outages and shoveling marathons, are discovering water seeping through roofs or into basements, or they are anxious that it will be soon.
“I`m out there every morning and every night with a hockey stick or a curtain rod trying to knock the icicles off my house,“ said Isabelle Howes of Rockville.
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Bates Area Civic Association 