Winterstorm knocks power out to several cities in central Iowa. I have no power.

[MatthewCarman]

I am sitting here with my laptop battery about to die and very low internet signal. Dont ask me where I am getting internet because my router is turned off due to no power.
Yesterday a ice storm hit followed by a winter storm. The ice storm got so bad that many trees and powerlines collapesed under the pressure. So far I have heard Newton,Grinnel and Ira have no power to the whole city. Many trees and limbs down aswell as powerlines. 1st Ave in newton is blocked as a tree feel acrossed the road and a powerpole snapped in half sending power lines all over the ground. Some roads have very low power lines across them and some yards have power lines laying in the grass or across the driveways.

I have been without power for over 15 hours and was told it would be on within a hour. I came on twice but for only 1-2 seconds and I have been without power simce. We are putting what food we can in the freezer and buying ice. I am freezing so trying to stay warm. Went to the store and all of the lights and laterns etc were sold out. long lines at the restaurants as people try to stay warm and get warm food in them. Power expected to stay out for 24-48 hours in most areas.

This is the worst ice storm we have had in many years and I dont ecpext to beable to get back online for a few days. This is realy bad right now. I feel sorry for all of the elderly people who have no heat.
Please pray for everyone who is going through a hard time right now or may be sick during this winterstorm. Light to Moderate snow still falling across central Iowa and another snow storm is possible wensday into thursday. -MatthewCarman.

 

[Bob Schafer]

Whenever you finally get a chance to read this, Matthew, know that my heart goes out to you and everyone affected by the storm. I'm sure I speak for all your buddies here on ST as well. Good luck to everyone trying to stay warm and safe.

 

[Joel Wright]

I was one of the few very lucky ones to escape the power outage. My lights flickered and even dimmed several times, but never went out. Most of the city around me went dark, even the fire station next door, but somehow mine managed to stay on. Needless to say, I had plenty of company last night as my house sort of ended up as an oasis in the midst of the blackness.

Many people in eastern Iowa were outraged when a local power company pulled their people off the job until conditions became less dangerous. Even the news anchor who was interviewing the company's spokesman was getting short with him during the interview.

I haven't watched the news yet today, but I'm guessing many people are still without power judging by the damage around. Broken power poles will likely take quite some time to fix.

The temperatures that rose into the upper 30's from late evening through this morning did a great job of knocking most of the ice off the trees and powerlines. So that's a major improvement at least...

 

[Josh Richardson]

I had my power flicker on and off a couple of times but that was it. Eastern IA was certainly the hardest hit by this as Joel had mentioned but I know Butler Co. up here in Northern IA had put in a report that 90% of residents county-wide had no power and 250 power poles had snapped. Other than that I've heard numerous spotty reports of power outages throughout the area to towns around me as well.

 

[cstrunk]

Hi everyone, I'm Chris and this is my first post on this site.

I'm going to college at Iowa State University in Ames, IA. We received both freezing rain and heavy snow here. Friday night began the freezing rain as small convective thunderstorms flew through the area glazing streets and sidewalks in ice and sleet. I woke up Saturday morning and it was raining - and freezing to everything. It rained pretty much continuously throughout the day before changing over to snow at about 3:30 PM. We ended up with about .25"-.35" of ice.

As the rain quickly changed over to snow, it was quite heavy. It snowed fairly heavily for the rest of the evening and into the early morning hours before beginning to lighten up. The wind was also blowing around 20 mph gusting to 30 at times, but I live in the city of Ames so I did not witness the full extent of any drifting. After all of the snow had fallen by around mid-morning, we ended up with roughly 8" of heavy, wet snow.

The city buses quit running last night because of the slick conditions, but have since began running again today. I'm not sure if there were many power outages in Ames, my dorm is powered the university's power plant on campus.

To all of those who are without power, stay warm and stay safe!

 

[Angie K Holliday]

I fortunately am in Missouri, and was south of the bad ice storm over the weekend. We had a lot of rain here, but just an hour north, my Mom had a lot of ice, and they lost power there for a few hours. My uncle, farther north and west in Iowa was without power for over 12 hours, but got their power back sometime yesterday afternoon. There are other towns in Southeastern Iowa that are still without power, and may be without power until Wednesday. My uncle also told me that a town near him is also without water because of the ice storm.

It was a bad storm, and I just thought I'd share some more of the problems it caused.

 

[MatthewCarman]

over 1 hundred thousund without power still and over 50 counties under a declartion of emergency. Just got my power back after 2 days of freezing to death lol

What do you all think of this next midwest storm? Think it will make this dangerous situation in Iowa even worse?

 

[Jim Zandonai]

We all get excited about storms but when the power goes out it really bites hard and especially in the Winter. Hope you guys in IA get it all back on soon.
Here in my area in NC IL. We escaped the dangerous ice and really heavy snow. Just a windy mess. By Sunday we had just a few inches of slush.
Now the next system looks like it may be similar but we'll have to refer to the forecast area for that.

 

[Joel Wright]

Lots of power outages still around here. My buddy from work hasn't had power since Saturday afternoon.

Many schools around the area didn't have classes today, and probably more of the same tomorrow.

 

[MatthewCarman]

Two more severe winter storms coming. Could be weeks before everyone has power back. This is a life threatning situation across Iowa.

 

[Robert Dewey]

HPC has us under a MDT risk for >0.25 inches of ZR... The NAM and GFS are both quite convective looking... NAM has been trending slightly southward/stronger with the low level cold air.

I'll probably post a FCST if an ice storm looks likely.

 

[Joel Wright]

60 counties in Iowa now declared disaster areas.

Some schools and businesses were still closed around here today. A lot of warming shelters have been set up for people without power and nowhere to go. At least one good thing is it isn't brutally cold outside.