Winter storm blankets Iowa roads with snow, creating dangerous travel conditions

Iowans woke up to a winter wonderland Tuesday morning as the winter storm raged on, spewing snow across communities and their roadways. As winds started to roar in the afternoon, state agencies warned residents to avoid travel altogether in certain areas.

The Iowa State Patrol advised against traveling on I-80 east from Des Moines to the Illinois border due to whiteout conditions. Troopers are responding as quickly as possible to crashes and assisting stranded motorists — but it’s getting more difficult, public information officer Sgt. Alex Dinkla told The Gazette.

Several stretches of I-80 closed due to accidents throughout Tuesday. As of 2:30 p.m., the westbound lanes 8 miles west of Tiffin were closed due to a multi-vehicle crash. Earlier at another location, an Iowa State Patrol vehicle was hit from behind while the trooper was out helping a stalled semi-truck. No injuries were reported from that crash.

The Iowa Department of Transportation’s Iowa 511 website warned against traveling on other roads around Cedar Rapids, including parts of US-151, US-30, IA-100, IA-13, IA-64, IA-38 and IA-136. Icy bridges, snow-covered roadways and drifting and blowing snow made the routes treacherous.

From 8 a.m. Monday to 4 p.m. Tuesday, 171 crashes were reported to the Iowa State Patrol. None were fatal. Over 150 reported property damages, and 18 reported personal injury. There were 482 calls to the patrol for motorist assists.

From 6 p.m. Monday to 2:20 p.m. Tuesday, the Cedar Rapids Police Department responded to 36 vehicle accidents, along with 33 road hazards, which included off-road vehicles and those blocking roads. As of 2:30 p.m., CRPD was actively working 14 separate vehicle accident locations.

“It appears people are driving more this afternoon than this morning,” public safety spokesperson Mike Battien told The Gazette. “Roads are still very slippery, and we're encouraging people to stay put if possible.”

The Iowa Department of Transportation’s Iowa 511 website reported that all of Iowa’s state roads were partially or completely covered in snow Tuesday morning. At least two-thirds of Iowa counties were marked as “towing not recommended.”

As snow fell Tuesday morning, nearly 700 state plows cleared roads across Iowa. At least another 39 were active in Linn County, clearing 99 percent of county-maintained hard surface roads and 75 percent of total county-maintained roads by Tuesday afternoon.

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The National Weather Service Quad Cities Bureau reported between 2 and 5 inches of snowfall over Monday night for Eastern Iowa. Another 4 to 10 inches was expected throughout Tuesday.

Cedar Rapids had received around 11 inches of snow by Tuesday afternoon, according to the weather service. Marion and Lisbon, near Mount Vernon, had both been covered with 12.5 inches of snow by that time.

Meteorologists had warned of possible power outages during the storm. At least 2,200 Alliant Energy customers were without power across Iowa around 3 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, according to the utility’s outage map. Around 3,200 MidAmerican Energy customers were affected by outages at the time, too.

The winter storm warning continues throughout Tuesday. Snow will fall late into the afternoon and early evening at rates of 1 to 2-plus inches per hour. Strong winds may gust over 40 mph and lead to blowing or drifting snow in the afternoon and evening.

Blowing and drifting snow may continue into Wednesday morning, but snowfall will become more patchy, the weather services’ Quad Cities Bureau reported. That forecast is subject to change as the storm progresses.

The weather service’s winter storm warning will continue until 6 a.m. Wednesday morning. The City of Cedar Rapids has extended its snow emergency until Friday at 12:01 a.m.

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Brittney J. Miller is the Energy & Environment Reporter for The Gazette and a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues.

Comments: (319) 398-8370; brittney.miller@thegazette.com