The big dig: Season's first winter storm is a whopper

(Photo by Randy M. Cauthron) Sisters Morgan and Peytan Roberts help mom and dad out by shoveling the driveway after being dismissed from school early on Tuesday. The girls most likely had a chance to shovel some more Wednesday as school was called off and the drifts returned. [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

Nine inches of snow, and it didn't want to stay in one place.

That was the challenge faced Tuesday and Wednesday by the law enforcement officers and road crews in the aftermath of the season's first winter storm.

A blizzard warning remained in place for much of the region Wednesday morning. By mid-afternoon, the warning area was being trimmed from west to east, with a wind chill advisory in its place.

"It seems to be getting quite a bit better," said Stu Christians of the Iowa State Patrol, who said snow was still blowing across the road at about 3 p.m. Wednesday.

"Today we had quite a few vehicles go into the median or a ditch in different locations on Highway 71 and a few other locations like Highway 18," he said.

The trooper wasn't aware of any injuries or collisions in the area.

"There were a few situations where tow trucks had to be called out," Christians said. "We just want to remind people that, if they do go in a median or ditch, to stay with their car. That's the time to call somebody -- don't be out walking around when other traffic could do the same thing and hit a pedestrian. That would turn a bad situation into something much worse."

Clay County Sheriff Randy Krukow said he also had concerns about drivers who considered straying too far from their vehicles. The National Weather Service in Sioux Falls, S.D., expected Thursday lows to reach 11 below zero in Spencer. Winds of 10 to 20 mph were expected to create wind chill reading of 20 to 30 below through Thursday morning.

"If you don't have to go out, if you're where it's warm and you can get by, I would advise you to stay there and stay safe," Krukow said.

That's not an option for Clay County sheriff's deputies. The county road crews opened up sections of roads so deputies who lived in the Everly or Peterson areas could make it to work.

"They were snowed in," Krukow said. "We had to get a plow out to the sheriff's office just so my deputies could get into the office. When even the sheriff's deputies can't get anywhere because they're snowed in, it's bad."

Clay County Engineer Scott Rinehart said county snowplows were pulled off the road at about 4 p.m. Tuesday night. Crews like to be out on the roads at about 5:30 a.m. after an overnight storm, but they were forced to wait until 9 a.m. Wednesday because of poor visibility.

"I did see a couple of cars in the ditch on my way in," Rinehart said, Wednesday morning. "We've got the trucks covering the black tops right now and at noon we're going to put the motor-graders out on the gravel. There really isn't a lot of snow on the road, it's more of a visibility issue. But, there is some snow piling up behind groves."

Some of the road cleanup will spill over into Thursday because of the delay caused by poor visibility.

Christians, the state trooper, said northwest Iowans did a good job of making preparations before the winter storm arrived.

"Nonetheless, anytime we have our first major snowstorm, it seems to bring out some of the carelessness in some people," he said. 'They're just going to try to make their destination. With not being able to see, and perhaps road conditions not being the best, you do have them going off of the roadway and creating some good business for tow services."

---

SNOWFALLS

Spencer 9 inches

Cherokee 8 inches

Ocheyedan 7 inches

Everly 7 inches

Storm Lake 10 inches

Rock Valley 7 inches

Spirit Lake 8 inches

Le Mars 6 inches

Rock Rapids 5 inches

Sioux Center 9 inches

Sioux City (6 miles south) 9.7 inches