Blizzard gusts of up to 58 mph ripped through Marshall County on Sunday and started decreasing Monday morning. Fortunately, most of the residents heeded warnings and stayed home, making the winter event easier for emergency personnel.

Marshalltown Police Chief Chris Jones said his officers only responded to nine blizzard-related incidents, three which were property damage only. Two occurred early Sunday night, and the other on Monday afternoon. They also had to tow six vehicles which were parked in emergency snow routes.

Marshall County Sheriff Joel Phillips said his deputies responded to six vehicle crashes that resulted in property damage; and 11 disabled vehicles which were stuck in ditches or had gone off of roadways. He said the reason most people stayed home was probably because the visibility was particularly bad, getting to zero in some locations.

“The low visibility is what put people off the road. It was hard to navigate,” Phillips said. “There was also some drifting snow, but it wasn’t too bad. Most of the roads were cleared. The roads were open Monday morning.”

Marshall County Emergency Management Coordinator Kim Elder agreed that the weather event could have been worse if residents had not stayed home.

“We did not have icy power lines, which was my main concern,” she said. “It was mostly fallen tree limbs, and unsecured objects flying around and low visibility.”

Blizzards can cause build up of ice on power lines, leading to broken or sagging lines or transformer explosions, which was Elder’s big worry. Fortunately, there were no widespread incidents of power outages.

At the beginning of the blizzard, there was a small amount of rain which quickly turned to snow, creating icy road conditions.

Unlike I-35 and I-80, all roads in Marshall County remained open. The Iowa Department of Transportation closed portions of both interstates Sunday evening, as the blizzard and ice made the roads impassable. According to Elder, roads through Marshall County are rarely closed, because of the large amounts of entry and exit points.

“All we can do is issue a ‘travel not advised,’ and hope people heed it,” she said.

Those advisories were lifted Monday morning at roughly 7 a.m.

“The winds were still causing visibility problems, but the main highways did not have a lot of snow or ice by then,” Elder said. “Even the plows were getting blown during the storm, which tells you how strong the winds were.”

It is difficult to gauge how much snow Marshall County had received, as she added that most of it was blown into Jasper County to the south.

Compared to previous blizzards, Phillips thought certain conditions of Sunday’s weather were worse, such as the wind and the low visibility.

“Most people stayed where they were at, and some families got out early for spring break,” he said.

According to Elder, each blizzard has its own challenges, and Sunday’s complete white-out areas were certainly one of them.

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Contact Lana Bradstream

at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or

lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.