Iowa troopers report 86 crashes and 535 motorist-assist calls as Midwest snowstorm pounds state

Some 600 drivers in Iowa either crashed their cars or were left stranded between Friday and Saturday as a wave of Arctic storms swept across the country.

The Iowa State Patrol said that from 12:30 a.m. on Friday to 10 a.m. on Saturday, it responded to 535 motorist assist calls and 86 crashes.

Miraculously, none of the incidents were fatal.

Just two days before Monday’s Iowa caucuses, swaths of the Hawkeye State were deemed “impassable” because of the extremely low visibility brought on by the intense storms — which dumped about 20 inches of snow and brought gusts of wind as high as 50mph in some areas.

About 100 of the reported stranded cars were trapped for five hours on Interstate 80 after semitrailers jackknifed across the slippery roadway.

Near Cedar Rapids, a tractor-trailer that was unable to stop on an icy interstate crashed into a state trooper’s car, snatching the back of the car beneath the caboose of the truck. Fortunately, both the driver and trooper walked away without serious injuries, the department said.

The National Weather Service called the conditions “life-threatening” Saturday afternoon and warned they would only continue to deteriorate.

The severe conditions have already led presidential candidates Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis and former President Donald Trump to shuffle their Iowa caucus schedules ahead of the extremely influential votes Monday.

“Conditions are again deteriorating this afternoon as the Arctic cold, light snow and increasing winds are arriving. At noon, many rural areas of central and northern IA had visibilities at or below one quarter mile. Wind chill values are -20 to -40 west of Interstate 35,” the Des Moines-based NWS said Saturday.

The capital city is on track to break its second-place record for five days of snowfall, which was set at 20.2 inches in 1923. The full record is 22.7 inches.

Iowa is not the only state dealing with the wild weather — the sprawling winter storm is set to hit the entire continental US this weekend.

Weather alerts of all types cover every state in the Lower 48, most of which are winter weather-related.

With Post Wires