Look at all the houses up in the mountains, not a shingled roof to be found. All of them are metal and normally pitched at a steeper angle, everyone has a backup source of heat or power and stockpiles of canned goods and an alternate source of emergency transportation for the winter if they live there year round. We're not used to it, so we're not as prepared I guess.
I remember the blizzards in NY years ago, they used to plow in tandem & use loaders, trucking out the excess snow in dump trucks. I guess after awhile though you have to run out of places to dump it.