Freezing rain brings icy conditions to Grundy County roads

GRUNDY COUNTY – The icy winter storm that swept through Iowa late Sunday into Monday brought freezing rain, slick roads and hazardous travel conditions to Grundy County.
Despite numerous reports of ice-related car crashes around the state, there were fewer than six reports of vehicles going into the ditch in Grundy County, and no reportable accidents, Sheriff Rick Penning said.
“We survived very easily. Everybody heeded the warnings and travel was very light; county employees were off because of Martin Luther King Day, a lot of schools were closed, and there weren’t a lot of semi-trucks out either,” Penning said.
Of the few vehicles that went into the ditch, the most notable was a county snow plow.
“We had eight trucks out spreading salt and sand, and one of them went into the ditch on the Gladbrook blacktop,” said County Engineer Gary Mauer. “It was very minimal damage, just a broken mirror, so we were fortunate there. It was in the ditch for a couple of hours before we had Dave’s Crane out of Union come pull it out.” 
Mauer said that at one point the ice accumulation reached a quarter inch, and the county roads crew had to spread around 500 tons of sand/salt mix on the roadways over the span of the storm.
“It’s a good thing it wasn’t windy because it would have been ten times worse,” Mauer added. 
For the full story, see the January 19 edition of The Grundy Register.