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Community Corner

Roof Rakes Scarce During Weather Woes

Most area hardware stores unable to meet demand and have customers who want roof rakes on a wait list.

Forget the ice-melt — the must-have accessory during this season of seemingly ceaseless snow is the roof rake.

Hardware stores report waiting lists with as many as 80 names on them. And some stores are so determined to meet their customers’ needs they will go the extra mile — literally.

“We have a few roof rakes. They came from Ohio,” said Gerry Rabin of Ridgefield Hardware. “I personally drove to the Pennsylvania-Ohio border last week and got some.”

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Ridgefield is one of the few places that still carry the item, necessary when roofs and decks are being pushed to their limit. Many have nearly four feet of snow and ice on them. And after repeated reminders to clear roofs and decks of snow and ice, people are clamoring.

Customers also want ice-melt, Safe Step or any other chemical concoction that can rid walks and driveways of packed snow and ice.

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However, it’s late in the season and manufacturers of ice melt are having a hard time keeping up with supply, Rabin said, adding the store has never missed a day for a snowstorm.

“When the weather is this bad it’s hard to recover,” Rabin said. “Everyone is screaming bloody murder for supplies. And now that half the country is covered in snow, sleet, freezing rain, it’s chaotic.”

Chaotic might be an understated way to describe the wild winter weather whipping the nation from New Mexico to Maine. At last reports, snow, freezing rain, sleet and ice hit 33 states. Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy ordered state employees to wait until at least 10:30 a.m. to report to work.

The quirk of this winter is there’s no time to recover between storms, Rabin said. There are 18-inch accumulations on top of 27-inch accumulations, and although New Englanders are used to this type of weather, it's usually more in intervals.

Crossroad’s Ace Hardware in Westport, Keeler’s in Wilton and Weston Hardware and Housewares have waiting lists that make it look like getting into the trendiest nightclub is easier.

“I have 80 names on a wait list,” said Frank Kudia of Weston Hardware and Housewares. “We ordered more from Ohio and we should have some more by Thursday or Friday.”

Andy Eckman, owner of Keeler’s True Value Hardware in Wilton, was supposed to get 100 roof rakes Wednesday from a manufacturing company in Ohio. The 21-foot, all-metal rakes sell for $79.99. And although every single one was pre-paid and accounted for, Keeler’s is expecting another 20 from the True Value Warehouse this weekend.

Customers are making repeated trips to the Weston Center store, Kudia said. Some load enough bags of ice melt in their cars they might be mistaken for moonlighting at any one of the Public Works departments in the region.

“We still have product, but we’re running out as fast as we get it,” Rabin said.

While Weed & Duryea in New Canaan reported another shipment of roof rakes should arrive Thursday morning, the news at one Norwalk retailer wasn’t so optimistic.

“No snow blowers. No shovels. No snow rakes,” said Richard Fischer, who works in customer service at Norwalk’s Home Depot.

But there was still plenty of ice-melt at 5 a.m. when Fischer arrived at work yesterday. As for the season’s most coveted accessory? Fischer suggested people scout their neighborhoods to see if they spot a roof rake.

If they see one in use, Fischer suggested asking to share or rent it. If that fails, one can “cobble one together from some PVC piping and plywood.”

“I’m 70 and I’ve never seen a winter like this one,” Fischer said.

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