Wednesday morning, January 6, Wright County residents woke up to a sheet of ice covering the roads, worse in some places than others. It left numerous drivers in the ditch (over half a dozen that were reported and many more that were not), and area schools cancelling classes for the day.
Clarion-Goldfield-Dows School District ended up canceling classes after originally having sent out buses. Eagle Grove did hold school. “Although we share a transportation director and often make similar calls, our districts are also very different in size and location; and weather can vary greatly between them,” said Eagle Grove Superintendent Jess Toliver.
Clarion had a lot more rain and ice than Eagle Grove did. CGD also covers around 367 square miles where the Eagle Grove district only covers around 150 square miles. “CGD buses have to travel a lot further to carry kids to school. Their district is actually about 45 miles across where ours is about 15 miles,” said Toliver.
“For the weather that came in, the traveling public was taken off guard,” said Wright County Engineer Adam Clemons. “The weather and temperature changed so quickly that people weren’t ready for it.”
He continued saying that between 3 – 4 a.m., it was fine, and just snowing by 5 a.m. But in the course of an hour, there was a major weather change – by 6, it was raining.
“It was like a skating rink for a while. We got material out as quickly as possible and within two-and-a-half hours, we were good,” he said.
