A growing number of roof collapses and more storms in the forecast have people scrambling to clear the snow off their buildings, but roofing contractors have waiting lists up to a week long, and hardware stores are selling out of do-it-yourself snow rakes.
Olympic Roofing in Topsfield was averaging one phone call every three minutes yesterday, but was only able to keep up with 15 percent of calls — and that was with the 50 temporary workers it had hired to help its 80 employees, manager George Vasiliades said.
"We tell people we'll go see their roof to assess it," Vasiliades said. "If we think there's a hazard, we'll prioritize it. But I'm booked for the next five or six days. Some people are understanding, but other people get upset."
George VanHillo of Aspen Roofing Services in Peabody said the nine people he has in the field have been working up to 12 hours a day, but it can still take three to five days for them to see someone's roof.
"I've had people tell me they'll pay five times our usual rate if we can see them today, but I just tell them all I can do is put them on the list," VanHillo said. "It wouldn't be fair to all the people ahead of them."
Many people who either can't find or can't afford a contractor have gone in search of a snow rake, determined to clear off their roof themselves, only to end up equally luckless.
In the past 1 1⁄2 weeks, Curry Ace Hardware in Hanover has quickly sold out of three shipments of rakes.
"We're getting in 60 more tomorrow, but they're already paid for," said sales associate Ian Kelly.
"We just haven't been able to keep them on our shelves. We thought we'd have enough if we ordered as many as we did last year, but we've already sold at least double what we did in all of last winter."
After selling out of its own supply of snow rakes, Monnick Supply Co. in Marlboro got in two dozen more at 7 a.m. yesterday.
By 7:45, they had all been sold.
"Snow rakes and roof melt account for at least 80 percent of the phone calls we get," said department manager Katie Henning. "Everybody's looking for them. It's incessant."
When the store tried to order more rakes, Henning said, one manufacturer said it had run out of materials to make them and wouldn't be getting in more for another six weeks.
"If this keeps up," she chuckled, "you're going to see a snow rake black market pretty soon."
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