Winter goes from bad to Wirtz
By Suzanne Werre
Editor
When the temperature turns cold, a real North Dakota winter arrives and the snow starts piling up, people generally remember to keep an eye on their vents so they don’t have issues with sewer gas and carbon monoxide.
What is less commonly worried about is the actual damage that could happen to a home because of the snow.
The Gene and Kim Wirtz family of rural Underwood, who have had snow piled since the first major snowfall in November, are finding out first-hand the structural damage snow can do.
No, their roof didn’t collapse from the weight of three feet of snow on top of it. They found themselves with an attic full of snow.
“We have snow up to the top of the garage, and the winds have just blown it in,” said Kim.
Kim started noticing something was wrong on Christmas Eve, when she noticed some water dripping from the ceiling. She started dealing with it the best way she knew how, as Gene and their son Jeremy weren’t home at the time – they were on their way home from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester where Gene had just had shoulder surgery.
