Dave Sweet

WMAL.com

WASHINGTON (WMAL) — A car dealership in Silver Spring had its roof collapse on Saturday during the height of the blizzard, yet stayed open for business this week regardless.

“It’s the outside portion of the service drive that collapsed from the middle,” said Ed Sarecky, General Manager of Herb Gordon Volvo. “It was because of the heavy snow on the roof that bowed the structure.”

There were seven cars underneath the outdoor structure according to Gordon. Two of those cars, a Subaru Forester and Volvo C30, were “totaled” according to Sarecky. But had they not been there, he warns, the damage to the building’s structure could have been much more costly.

“We had seven cars parked underneath the structure,” said Sarecky. “It turned out maybe to be a good thing because had those cars not been there the structure would have been able to fall all the way down to the ground.”

Despite the setback Sarecky was determined to keep his business up and running.

“We’re still open,” he said. “We’ve got another area where everyone can drop off the cars, and everything else is normal.”

(Photos: Ed Sarecky)