Snow plow on Highway 169 north of Adel; photo courtesy of Iowa DOT

A blizzard over the weekend created several issues in the Raccoon Valley Radio listening area, but road crews from Dallas County and the City of Perry felt things went relatively well considering the conditions.

Perry Public Works Director Jack Butler said his crews spent a lot of time Friday and Saturday getting the roads ready for the inclement weather. Plows were blading off City streets when ice and sleet came, though Butler says when the heaviest snowfall began, crews packed it up for a few hours. They then went back out at around 1 a.m. Sunday and began plowing the streets. However, Butler says that created a flash-freeze situation due to the pavement still being wet from the rain. They then used salt and sand to improve driving conditions, and crews are continuing today with getting City streets cleared off. Butler also indicated that the issue of the snow being too high to plow has continued, so they’ve also utilized a snowblower to clear roads more thoroughly.

At the County level, Engineer Al Miller said his road workers were busy dealing with ice most of the weekend, particularly on the gravel routes. When the snow came, Miller said they weren’t immediately able to get out and plow, because most of their time was devoted to rescuing stranded motorists. They were eventually able to start clearing roads, and worked all the way up to sundown Sunday evening. Miller said they got to all of the paved routes but were unable to plow the gravel roads at that time. The process is continuing today, as crews started at 5 a.m. and will clear as much as possible before the end of the day, likely tackling gravel roads first thing Tuesday morning.

Dallas County Sheriff Chad Leonard summed up the whole weekend by calling it “a mess.” He felt sending out an advisory through social media to warn residents to stay off the roads helped, but said deputies still responded to countless calls for assistance. Leonard said they spent most of Sunday morning rescuing stranded motorists, and the afternoon was spent towing abandoned vehicles off roadways. Leonard said they responded to a wreck with a fatality on Interstate 80 on Saturday, as well as a tractor rollover on Sunday that included minor injuries, but there were no other serious incidents over the weekend.

Whenever severe winter weather affects the listening area, make sure to tune in to Raccoon Valley Radio for the latest road conditions, as well as cancellation and delay information.