About 960 drivers in Iowa crashed their cars or were stranded between Friday and Saturday when a wave of arctic storms swept across the country.
The Iowa State Patrol said that from 12:30 a.m. Friday to 9 p.m. Saturday, it responded to 833 driver assistance calls and 127 crashes.
Miraculously, none of the incidents were fatal.
Just two days before Monday’s Iowa caucuses, swaths of the Hawkeye State were deemed “impassable” due to extremely low visibility caused by the intense storms, which dumped about 20 inches of snow and caused wind gusts of up to 50 mph in some areas. .
About 100 of the reported stranded cars were stuck for five hours on Interstate 80 after semi-trucks flipped over on the slippery road.
Near Cedar Rapids, a tractor-trailer that failed to stop on an icy interstate crashed into a state trooper’s car, pinning the rear of the car under the truck’s caboose. Fortunately, both the driver and the police officer were unharmed. the department said.
The National Weather Service called conditions “life-threatening” Saturday afternoon and warned they would only continue to deteriorate.
A tractor-trailer skidded on the icy road and collided with the state police car. X/@iowastatepatrol/Iowa State Patrol There were at least 86 reported crashes and 535 calls for driver assistance between Friday and Saturday in Iowa.
The severe conditions have already prompted presidential candidates Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis and former President Donald Trump to change their caucus schedules in Iowa ahead of Monday’s extremely influential votes.
“Conditions are deteriorating again this afternoon as arctic cold, light snow and increasing winds arrive. At noon, many rural areas of central and northern IA had visibilities at or below a quarter mile. “Wind chill values are -20 to -40 west of Interstate 35,” said the The Des Moines-based NWS said Saturday.
The capital city is on track to break its second-place record for five-day snowfall, which was set at 20.2 inches in 1923. The full record is 22.7 inches.
Visibility was low throughout Iowa, leading state police to deem large swaths of the highway “impassable.” AP
Iowa isn’t the only state facing this wild weather: The extensive winter storm will hit the entire continental US this weekend.
Weather alerts of all types cover all states in the contiguous 48 states, most of which are related to winter weather.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn