Wet snow sinks three boats, damages others in marina roof collapse

Three boats sunk and several others were damaged when wet, heavy snow collapsed the roofs covering two boat docks at West Bay Marina in Olympia, Washington.

Ten other boats were under the collapsed roofs, according to marina management and published reports, some of which crews were able to relocate from the debris.

“Some of them have to be kind of freed from the metal work that held the roof up. That’s a lot more involved,” marina general manager Neil Falkenburg told The Olympian.

Marina employees had spent the entire day Monday shovelling snow from the protective coverings, but could not keep up with the storm. The first collapse occurring in early evening, followed by the second about 30-minutes later.

“We had shoveled it and the snow built back up enough and then it rained on it and probably seven or eight inches of snow and four hours of rain,” Falkenburg told KCBY-TV

It was a close call for Larry King, whose boat was moored just feet from where the heavy rain-laden snow brought down several of the metal rooftops covering the slips. “The cover next to us dropped on the boats and I was concerned with mine so I pulled her out of the cover and got her safe to the other side,” said King.

The marina and salvage crews are working to safely remove the trapped boats without causing any more damage and then bring the three sunken boats back to the surface

No damage estimates were Immediately available.