Mother nature unleashes wintry fury
|
As winds whipped and blew snow throughout Iowa, Newton and Jasper County was brought to a near standstill. Eleven inches fell on Newton Tuesday and early today, closing businesses, shutting down schools and making travel nearly impossible.
Jody Rhone, Newton street superintendent, said crews were out since early today trying to combat the accumulated and drifting snow.
“It’s a losing battle right now,” Rhone said. “We’ve been out since 2 a.m., started with mains and going to attempt to get through everything once today.”
Rhone said he has nine people out trying to clear roadways and will keep them out until about 4 p.m. today to get rest. He said the crews will then come back in tonight at midnight and start working on streets again.
To assist road crews, Rhone is asking Newton citizens to stay inside their homes and off the streets unless there is an emergency.
“It would really help us out if people stay off streets,” he said. “Not only can we get them plowed quicker, it will help so vehicles are not packing it down on to the streets.”
Out in the rural areas of Jasper County, Secondary Roads Department crews are struggling to keep ahead of the drifting snow — with mixed results.
The county has all the equipment they have out on the job Wednesday morning, including 17 motor graders and 12 trucks, attempting to clear snow from the roadways.
“We’re just concentrating on hard surfaces right now,” said Jasper County maintenance superintendent Dennis Bucklin. He added that crews began at 4 a.m. Wednesday morning, but were called in for an hour or so around 5:30 a.m. due to the extreme conditions.
Bucklin said the plan for Wednesday was to keep hard surfaced roads open as much as possible until the strong winds subside, then start on gravel roads early Thursday morning. Although the county has plenty of sand and salt on hand, Bucklin said it was difficult to treat the roads in the heavy winds.
“It’s blowing in as fast as we can plow it,” he said. “This is the worst I’ve seen it in my 35 years in Secondary Roads.”
The entire state was in the same boat when it came to keeping roads cleared. At 6:10 a.m. today, Interstate 80 westbound was closed east of Newton at the 172 mile marker due to drifting snow and the route was deemed impassable with a towing ban in effect, according to www.511ia.org. Several vehicles were in the ditches and stuck along the Interstate and it was unknown how long the lane would be closed. Also several semis were two miles west of the Kellogg exit blocking the roadway to westbound traffic.
The same stretch of Interstate was closed Tuesday morning as well. Interstate 80 westbound was closed for about an hour Tuesday morning due to a weather related accident that sent a man to Skiff Medical Center in Newton.
With blizzard conditions and winds of up to 45 miles per hour expected through today, many places were closing up shop including the Jasper County Sheriff’s business office, Newton schools, DMACC Newton campus, and Newton Public Library to name a few. The Newton Clinic had its doors open treating patients today but was planning on closing at 3 p.m. due to the weather.
Even though the snow was bad for some businesses, snow removal companies were doing well. Jennifer McCloney with All Seasons Lawn Care said she had several calls before 7 a.m. today, many were first-time customers calling because they could not handle shoveling the snow.
“It’s very thick,” she said. “The blades on the fronts of the trucks are even having trouble so we are now using the skid loader.”
Although private, city, county and state plows are out clearing roads, Newton Police Chief Jeff Hoebelheinrich said officers have been responding to several emergency calls and advised people to stay just home and off the roads.
“We suggest everybody, if they don’t have good reason to get out, to stay home,” Hoebelheinrich said. “It puts themselves in jeopardy and if an officer would have to respond, it puts them into jeopardy. Basically it just making a hazard for everyone else.”
John Jennings, NDN staff writer, contributed to this story.
Jessica Lowe can be contacted at 792-3121 ext. 426 or via e-mail at jlowe@newtondailynews.com.
