We feel for those of you digging out from under a mountain of snow from the storms that hit the East Coast last week. Hopefully there won’t be a repeat performance of the storms and residents have more time to “dig out” from what came through last week. Here from The Washington Post are a few tips that might help lessen the pain of removing the snow from driveways, sidewalks, and front porches.

* Dress warm and wear a hat to prevent heat loss along with boots with good tread

* If you are out of shape or overweight, go at a slow pace to reduce the risk of heart attack

* Shovel small loads and bend your knees and keep your back as straight as possible so you are lifting the snow with your legs

* Drink plenty of water while shoveling – do not drink any alcohol

* Take frequent breaks

Interesting little side note: I just heard on the news that some areas of New York have laws in place that snow needs to be removed from the front of buildings within four hours of the end of a snow storm. Washington DC’s law apparently allows for 8 hours. Failure to do so can result in the building owner being cited by the city for failure to clear a path for folks to pass by. Pretty tight rules if you ask me – what if you are at work when the snow fall ends?

We would love to hear more from our east coast friends about the hi’s and low’s of getting the snow out and away from your home or building once the last snow ends. Good luck everyone and be safe in the cold weather.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 15th, 2010 at 5:00 am and is filed under In The News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.