Some plans of Marshall County residents were put on hold or canceled this weekend as a winter storm rolled in Friday night and stayed through Saturday.

Marshall County Emergency Management Coordinator Kim Elder said her primary concern when the snow started falling was some people forget how to drive on winter roads.

“We remind seasoned drivers to practice and get their skills back,” she said. “If you have a kid who is learning, take them to an empty parking lot and get a feel for it – the turns and how different vehicles operate. We also remind people to slow down.”

With an average of 10 inches of wet, heavy snow in the county, 8.5 in Marshalltown, falling during the weekend, Elder said the streets and highways got bad. There were times when the paths newly created by the county snowplows were covered by an “inch or two” of snow by the time the plow circled back around.

Because of the need for the plows and first responders to be out in the elements, Elder said they urged people to only travel when absolutely necessary.

“If you had shopping, or wanted to visit someone, that could wait,” she said. “People could let the first responder vehicles get their job done, let the snowplows clean up.”

Elder said there was an increase of calls from people who ended up in the ditches, and there was one rollover. Most of the calls occurred when the snow began falling faster on Saturday night.

“The plow trucks couldn’t keep up,” she said. “That was when we saw the majority of the slides into the ditch.”

Marshall County Sheriff Joel Phillips said with the road conditions, lowered visibility and the holiday weekend, it could have been worse. Deputies responded to four crashes involving property damages, 19 disabled vehicles which left the roads, one operating while intoxicated incident and two welfare checks on overdue motorists who arrived at their destination, but failed to notify family members.

“Traffic is increasing, and we are expecting more motorists traveling home to continue driving too fast for road conditions, lose control of their vehicle and become stuck in the ditches or medians,” he said.

Overall, Elder was proud of the work done by personnel during the first winter storm of the season.

“We have a limited amount of resources, and we do the best we can with the few resources we have,” she said.

Now that winter weather has arrived in Marshall County, Elder wanted to remind people about what they can do to better prepare themselves if they have to travel when Mother Nature strikes. First is to utilize 511, either the app or online, to check road conditions and track the snowplows.

“If you have to go out, tell someone your plan and your route,” she said. “Check in when you get there, and have a winter kit so you have things to keep yourself warm and let people know where you are.”

Elder recommended people use the American Red Cross list to put a car kit together. The items people should have with them when traveling during unfavorable winter weather are:

Food and water;

Cell phone adapter and charger;

First-aid kit;

Blanket;

Winter wear including gloves, hat and extra layers of clothing;

Hand warmers;

Booster cables;

Windshield brush and scraper;

Sand or cat litter to help provide traction for tires;

Flashlight with extra batteries and;

Multi-purpose tool.

WEATHER CHANGES

Events planned for the Thanksgiving weekend were changed when the snow arrived in Marshalltown. Some of the announced changes included:

Services at New Life and New Hope churches were canceled for Sunday;

The Marshall County Landfill, La Carreta Mexican Grill, Arby’s, the Animal Rescue League and Marshalltown Public Library were closed on Saturday

The opening of Santa’s Workshop in Meadow Lane Mall was moved to Dec. 5.

——-

Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.