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City efforts to clean the streets after the two recent snowstorms may end up costing Bowie more than $600,000, according to City Manager David Deutsch.

Deutsch said approximately 35 inches of snow have fallen on Bowie since the first major storm on Feb. 5.

"We're at somewhere in the 70 inches for the season," Deutsch said. "I'm from upstate New York, and we're about 10 inches ahead of Rochester for season totals right now. That's kinda turning the world upside down on its head."

Deutsch said on Monday that 15 pieces of equipment were still working on clearing roads. City officials were looking for additional front-end loaders to clean up particularly icy streets in some neighborhoods, as they were the only machines capable of breaking the ice.

"I'm not sure I see an end to this for a while," Deutsch said.

The city received a 350-ton shipment of salt over the weekend, which replenished its reserve, Deutsch added.

City officials weren't the only ones still dealing with the storms' aftermath.

Last Friday, the Wal-Mart on Crain Highway was evacuated because water was leaking through the roof, according to Prince George's County spokesman Jim Keary.

"They were concerned it was leaking onto electrical lines," Keary said.

The Bowie Wal-Mart was built in 1993, according to Ashley Hardie, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman.

The store was closed on Friday evening and re-opened on Sunday, according to Hardie. Specialists were called in to inspect the roof, and snow was removed, she added.

"It's something we continue to monitor in all of our stores," Hardie said.

Keary said an engineer reported that the weight of the snow did not exceed the building's design capacity and that the roof frame had not been affected.

The Department of Environmental Resources, which conducts county code inspections, then gave Wal-Mart permission to reopen, Keary said.

Snow also caused problems at a Wal-Mart in Landover Hills.

About 100 people were evacuated at the store on Friday when employees noticed buckled drywall, Keary said. County Fire Department officials responded at approximately 6:30 p.m. Management was given the green light to reopen the building after the structure was inspected, Keary said.

The 144,300-square-foot Landover Hills Wal-Mart opened in 2007, according to a news release on Wal-Mart's Web site. The building previously housed a Montgomery Ward and then a Hechinger's until 2000, according to the release.

The Bowie Best Buy on Collington Road also cleared snow from its roof on Saturday.

"There was lots of snow and a couple of leaks," operations manager Kevin Moses said. "Just to be safe from things buckling and to avoid trauma to our customers and the store, we decided to clear the snow away."

Moses said the store remained open while a large crane helped move snow off the roof. The leaks damaged demonstration cell phones and televisions, and the store plans to submit an insurance claim, he said.

E-mail Sarah Richards at srichards@gazette.net.