Motorists urged to stay home in 'epic' blizzard
Law enforcement officials and emergency personnel are urging people to stay off the roads until the blizzard subsides.
Webster County Emergency Management Agency Coordinator Tony Jorgensen said so far they have only had one rescue mission regarding a trapped MidAmerican truck near Duncombe. The truck was stranded on old highway 20 trying to get to a power outage, he said. No one was injured.
There have been reports of many stranded vehicles and the dispatch center is extremely busy, he said.
Jorgensen said to avoid calling 911 unless it is a true emergency so they can handle all of the calls coming in.
The National Weather Service has called this blizzard "epic."
Storm watchers for Webster County have reported average snow depth of 14.5 inches in some locations and snowdrifts at times have been 2 to 3 feet high.
Wind gusts have been recorded up to 55 to 60 miles an hour, Jorgensen said.
County snow plows have been pulled off the roads until the winds slow down.
Jorgensen said winds are expected to slow down about 6 p.m. tonight.
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WCResident
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12-11-09 11:35 PM
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****Update**** Something got into them this time. They have made a change to their system for this storm. Now anyone that showed up late will be excused, and everyone that stayed home can choose to take a vacation day. Even though this exception to the rule was a nice gesture, they could've cancelled the shift that day since they haven't worked a 40 hour week since July. They could've had them make it up on Friday (that's what they had to do anyway.)
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WCResident
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12-10-09 9:48 PM
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Fair system? You only have so many points to use in 1 year. They are denying general leaves for funerals, specialist visits, etc. You have to use your points for those things too. This is just the start of winter. What if we have 9 more days like this? Everyone from out of town will be out of points and fired even if they started with zero points.
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keepngoal
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12-10-09 8:59 AM
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sounds like a fair policy... If you are a good employee one point, when used for situations like this, won't tip scale to where they are fired. Plant didn't close, people choose not to make the commute (smart), company has a point system so 1 point won't lose a job.
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kaleidoscope
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12-09-09 11:56 PM
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A friend of mine works at Electrolux and Boones is correct. Employees who called in and unable to report for work due to the weather were docked a 'point' and did not get paid for the day. It made no difference that commuters were not allowed out of Fort Dodge due to the treacherous road conditions. She told me well over 200 employees were unable to make it to Webster City.
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NamVet
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12-09-09 6:29 PM
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BOONES; Tell me, are you positive Electrox was actually open during this blizzard and that employees were expected to risk their lives going to work? Anyone confirm this? If I had a family member, or loved one, employed by that company there would be NO WAY they would travel to work! I would go so far as to take their car keys and try to form a National Campaign to really hurt that company, and yes, hopefully to put them out of business. But again, were they really open??
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oldtimer
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12-09-09 5:17 PM
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its 95 and sunny down there save all that money in heat too
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Boones
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12-09-09 1:01 PM
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Oh, but Electrolux is open and there is NO excuse why employees are not there!!! Stupid idiots!
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