About 600 drivers in Iowa either crashed their cars or were stranded between Friday and Saturday as a wave of Arctic storms swept across the country.
The Iowa State Patrol said that from 12:30 a.m. on Friday to 10 a.m. on Saturday, it responded to 535 driver assistance calls and 86 crashes.
Miraculously, there were no fatal incidents.
Just two days before Monday’s Iowa caucuses, areas of the Hawkeye State were deemed “impassable” due to extremely low visibility due to the powerful storm — which dumped about 20 inches of snow and brought wind gusts as high as 50mph in some areas.
About 100 of the cars that were reported stranded were stuck for five hours on Interstate 80 after a partially burning car crossed the slippery road.
Near Cedar Rapids, a tractor-trailer that failed to stop on an icy intersection crashed into a state trooper, grazing the rear of the car under the cab of the truck. Fortunately, both the driver and the soldier escaped without serious injury, the department said.
The National Weather Service called conditions “life-threatening” Saturday evening and warned it would only continue to deteriorate.
A tractor trailer skidded on an icy road and crashed into a government trooper car. X/@iowastatepatrol/Iowa State Patrol There were at least 86 reported crashes and 535 driver assistance calls between Friday and Saturday in Iowa. X/@iowastatepatrol/Iowa State Patrol
Bad conditions have caused presidential hopefuls Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis and former President Donald Trump to reshuffle their Iowa caucus schedules ahead of Monday’s highly influential vote.
“Conditions deteriorated again this evening as cold Arctic, light snow and increasing winds arrived. By midday, many rural areas in central and northern IA had visibility at or below a quarter mile. Wind chill values are -20 to -40 west of Interstate 35,” the The Des Moines-based NWS said Saturday
The capital is on track to break the second-place record for five days of snowfall, set at 20.2 inches in 1923. The full record is 22.7 inches.
Visibility was low across Iowa, leading state troopers to deem most highways “impassable.” AP
Iowa isn’t the only state dealing with wild weather — a widespread winter storm is expected to hit the entire continental US this weekend.
Weather alerts of all types cover every state in the Lower 48, most of which are related to winter weather.
By Postal Wire
Categories: Trending
Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
