We moved away from MA a couple years ago. It was the worst winter We had in the 25 yrs we lived there. Around the country many are having the icedam problems we faced that last year. People all over the area were loosing gutters, downspouts and having leaking due to ice dams. People were up on the roof with hammers and axes. Not good as a lot of damaged roofs.

For the only time in the 17 yrs we had been in the house I had water damage due to ice dams. I had to do something but didn't want to do the hammer/ax thing. I shoveled about 3-4' of snow off the roof and had 12-16" of ice 24-30" up the roof. I got 100' of garden hose out of the garage and connected it to may tankless water heater. With a garden hose nozzle that gave a shower pattern I started at the downspout location and used the hot water to cut "bread loaves" in the ice. Spray from the outside in so more water doesn't lay against the shingles. This was a 3000 sq ft Colonial. I ran hot water for 3 1/2 hrs, never ran out of hot water and had no further ice problems. As usual, the neighbors thought I was nuts, until they saw how well it worked. Oh, also, the runoff melted the ice in the driveway.

I feel for what all of you are going through in this bitter cold and snow. Have to say though that here in the foothills today it was 70 and clear blue skies. Sure wish it would rain though.