Let’s Talk Newton- Jasper County Sheriff Brad Shutts

Time now for today's Let's Talk, new powered by the Knoxville raceway.

We're talking to a Jasper Canyon share of Brad Shudds about the big snowstorm that we had over the weekend.

And Brad thanks for spending time with us today.

First off, Brad, I guess we got to give the National Weather Service their props.

You know, usually we complain whenever they kind of miss storms,

but they kind of hit the nail on the head with this one.

Yes, they did.

Really, this is they were extremely concerned about this and usually the DOT doesn't

doesn't get this concern on on snow events, but this one really caught their eye.

Yeah, and it caused a lot of work for a law enforcement, both at the state level and the county level as well.

What was the county's approach is you handled this storm?

So we worked with our partners there at the DOT Department of Public Safety and Homeland Security had had some briefings over teams on Sunday.

Kind of said what the plan would be when the weather hit.

And so pre-planning a lot of it, making sure staff was aware of the weather that was coming in so they could make arrangements, which all staff showed up as they as they were scheduled to,

which showed great efforts on their part from making sure that they could get to work as an essential employee.

Definitely now, who makes the actual call to shut down the interstate?

It doesn't happen very often, but who is that the DOT's actual call with the how's that process go?

Yeah, it is the DOT. They obviously listen to first responders out in the field.

This is the first time that I can remember where they actually shut the interstate down.

Normally on 35 North, that happens quite often, but I've seen them pull plows before, but never utilize these new gates and shut things down.

Which worked well because then we didn't have the problems on the interstate. We did have one shortly after they closed the gates because traffic isn't diverted off.

It's it maintains until the person next to the vehicle actually gets off and then can't get back on, but they don't really have a hard shut down.

So we did have an accident in semi and two cars collided around Kellogg there with a couple injuries, but it really worked well for them to close down and stop the traffic.

Talking to Jasper can you share Brad Shudds about the big snowstorm that we had over the weekend.

Now it was shut down for a while. I think it reopened what noon on Monday.

Yeah, we had another call and they said that they were going to let west of the morning, open at 10 o'clock and then east of Des Moines there at Altona and noon, but the traffic made it over quite a bit faster to the Altona area where they did have a hard shut down that was running eastbound and traffic started to back up at Altona.

So they opened it about a half hour early and it was a smooth process we didn't have any.

It gave the time for the interstate to thaw out to get dried up and good good conditions.

Now you mentioned it's kind of all hands on deck. How long is that in effect for?

We had people on luckily things calm down around shift change.

So all the midnight cars could get home then.

Obviously the dispatch made a smooth transition there at eight o'clock as well as a jail.

So with everybody coming in, nobody had to stay late to cover for people because they were prepared. The employees were prepared to get to work and some of them actually paid for hotel room so they could make sure they.

That's not too long and time and everything which is which is great just says.

Great things about the staff and how they're committed to helping and doing their jobs.

Yeah, strong dedication there was it pretty much the same severity throughout the county.

Yeah, it really was a win just whipped around everything and luckily we didn't get as much snow as what we were anticipated.

So the visibility got better faster.

But talking to chief deputy Rosenhall who has prior law enforcement with the other state patrol since the 80s.

He said this was the worst he had ever seen it being out on the road.

And that you couldn't see and you basically had to look at and listen for rumble strips and now to get where you needed to go to get some of these people to shelter.

I know I had to come in from the Des Moines area early on Monday morning and with the interstate clothes I had to go all the way to 163 and hopped on.

I saw a lot of Al-Tuna there and really between Al-Tuna and Prairie City.

I saw a lot of vehicles that had were stranded and had found the ditch or the side of the road.

But after you got my Prairie City on in towards Monroe it wasn't quite as many vehicles that were stranded over there.

That's probably because I went in the ditch for everybody went in the ditch before Prairie City there.

It's while there wasn't any after.

But no that shows you know some people when they close the interstate down there's a reason for that.

To close the interstate down is a major thing.

And for people you know everybody's got to be somewhere in their minds and they got to get there and they use those alternative routes.

You know highway 330 up to highway 30 or there go up to through Ankeny up to get to highway 30 which caused some problems up around the aims or they would take the bypass down on 163.

They try any way to get around the interstate which you know those roads are just as bad and when it pull the plows off around 11 o'clock.

They weren't out there cleaning those things up people were on their own which is pretty dangerous.

We don't have magic things to get to you we have to go out in the same elements and drive the same roads to where you went in the ditch to get to you and to take you to safety.

Plus not only the time it takes you to get there but you got other people you have to help too and then you have to get them to safety before you can go out and do another call for the most parts.

Yeah exactly and luckily we didn't have EMS calls were we're at a minimum throughout the county because that's one of the worst things is you know living out the county and EMS fire and law enforcement not being able to get to you because of the condition.

The only thing I'm surprised about it didn't happen during the girls state basketball tournament.

I know there were there were a couple weeks off but yeah this is March and Iowa can do anything as we know the weather is going to be possibly up in the 70s later on this week so it's up and down you don't know what you're going to get.

Well we appreciate you spending some time with us and talking about our big storm over the weekend and be safe out there.

Thanks Randy you too.

Again that was Jasper County Sheriff's Rage Shuts and today's let's talk Newton powered by the National Raceway make the short drive down highway 14 for the best dirt track racing around at the spring car capital of the world.

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