A storm to remember

Without the sign, it would be difficult to pick out the road in rural Clay County east of Everly Sunday. While this road won't be tended to, county and city maintenance crews throughout northwest Iowa worked tirelessly through the holiday to dig out after 24 inches of snow fell. (Photo by Paula Buenger) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

The 2 feet of snow accompanied by ice and wind which buried northwest Iowa residents over the extended Christmas holiday weekend caused havoc for many area families. But despite the problems which reared their ugly heads, those impacted worked together to remove snow, handle power outages and help dig each other out.

Snow removal from city streets turned into a deliberate, time-consuming task. Spencer Public Works Director Mark White calculated Spencer street division staff members worked 830 man hours between Dec. 21 and Dec. 27 to accomplish this duty.

"That doesn't include the extra help from all the other departments that helped through the storm, which included the solid waste division, cemetery, park department, both public works assistants and the planning director," White clarified. "Everybody was involved with snow removal one way or another. If not on a piece of equipment, helping to remove snow from sidewalks or the downtown pick up when we hauled the snow away from where it's piled up in the center of Grand Avenue."

As Spencer's public works director looked toward the near future, and the 20-40 percent chances of light snow called for tonight and tomorrow, he advised, "One of the biggest things that the citizens can help us with is not blowing their snow back into the center of the street with their snowblowers. When that's blown out there, it gets driven on and it gets rough and rutty if we don't get back to it in time to scoop or plow it again. Plus, that snow can end up in your neighbor's driveway."

Area power outages

While power did flicker Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in some Spencer homes, no actual power outages were reported inside the city limits over this past holiday weekend. The same could not be said throughout the Iowa Lakes Electric Cooperative (ILEC) service area. According to Rick Olesen, ILEC's vice president of operations and engineering, the most recent ice, wind and snowstorm caused outages for many customers, as well as problems for the field staff and equipment addressing their issues, which were caused in part by 8-10 substations being down due to transmission issues.

"We had over 2,000 accounts (or over 20 percent of our system) go out about 1 p.m. Friday afternoon, and we ended up with 1,200 - 1,500 off overnight Friday night. We got all but about 500 back on Saturday, and we got the remaining 500 accounts on Sunday," Olesen reported. " ... Something we don't like to do, but we had to do both Friday night and Saturday night, is we had to pull our crews in because of visibility issues and just physically not being able to get down roads."

Olesen acknowledged their electric customers' patience, as well as willingness to assist with clearing the way for ILEC crews. He also credited Clay County Engineer Scott Rinehart, who made county crews and Clay County plows available to ILEC workers who weren't able to traverse roads to put lines back up.

"We had over 40 guys in the field and over 20 pieces of equipment out there. This storm pushed our equipment, as well as our guys, to their physical limits," Olesen said. "I'm really proud of our guys. They worked safely and nobody got hurt. ... They never complained once while working 18-hour days without any hot food in difficult conditions. They realized that the people they were trying to get (back online) didn't have heat in their homes, and they were worried about their houses freezing up. So, they never complained. They'd just ask where the next call was and we'd give it to them."

Driving conditions, tips for travelers

Northwest Iowa roadways did turn tragic for a Sioux County man who got his pickup truck stuck on a gravel road Dec. 24, and attempted to walk back to his nearby residence. William Rielly, 81, of rural Rock Valley, was pronounced dead at the scene Dec. 25. He was reportedly overcome by the elements and died as a result.

"Otherwise, we had a fair number of vehicles in the ditch and fender benders," Iowa State Patrol Trooper Vince Kurtz said. "But I think by and large, the majority of the motoring public did heed the warnings that were put out ahead of time as to avoiding travel if at all possible during the storm and they stayed home."

As the trooper looked forward to upcoming travel on Iowa's wintery roadways, he advised motorists to not leave their vehicle if they were to ever become stranded in a winter storm. Instead, Kurtz said to stay with the vehicle and wait for help to arrive.

With area ditches filled with snow already, he cautioned that storm conditions like those which occurred late last week can now be recreated with even a small amount of snow and/or wind.

"So, we'd encourage people to watch the road conditions because they can change so quickly. If that wind picks up and starts blowing that existing snow across the road, then you've got 100 percent ice conditions before you know it without actual snow falling," Kurtz advised.

He also encouraged motorists to continue buckling their seatbelts, driving defensively and maintaining control of their vehicles at all times.

"The failure to maintain control citation is the one that we write most often this time of year when storms hit," Kurtz said. "Even if it is 100 percent ice, you are still required to maintain control of your vehicle. A lot of people still don't realize that, and when they end up in the ditch because of slick roads they wonder why they're getting a ticket in these road conditions. The code specifically says that regardless of the road conditions you're required to maintain control of your vehicle."

Not doing so can also net you a $107.25 ticket.

While over a dozen vehicles were reported stuck in Clay County ditches beginning Wednesday night and into Christmas Eve morning, even more reports of cars in ditches were being called in Monday afternoon. Many of the traffic snarls experienced inside Spencer's city limits this past weekend were also weather related.

"There were a lot of snow emergency violations. We issued 58 snow emergency tickets and we towed six (vehicles) during the three days (Dec. 23 - 26) that the snow emergency was in effect," Spencer Police Chief Mark Lawson said. "Otherwise, the rest of it was the normal run-of-the-mill stuff. We still had our domestic disturbances, OWIs and neighbors not getting along with other people. Some of that had to do with snow removal or snow being piled on somebody else's yard or parking.

"But, as far as any major things related directly to the holidays, it went well. In the total scheme of things, if you'd taken the weather factor out of the entire weekend, I think everybody would have had a pretty good time."

By Monday afternoon, Spencer's police chief was already anticipating his department receiving numerous complaint calls from town residents or passers-by who couldn't see beyond their driveways or around intersections because of the snow piled up.

"People have to drive with caution and drive according to conditions. Because if you pull out just because you can't see, you're going to be at fault for failure to yield. It's going to be a few days before public works can get all these intersections knocked down. It's going to be the same out in the county," Lawson said.

He also predicted future issues with water.

"This much snow on some of these rooftops is going to cause concerns for people," Lawson said. "So, they might want to be checking their furnace vents, the out vents. With some of these newer furnaces, if that snow is blocking the intake or the exhaust, it automatically shuts down. We've already had a couple calls where people aren't getting heat."