Seventeen inches.  That’s how much snow fell in Oskaloosa Sunday (11/25).  Throw in blowing snow and that made for difficult driving conditions.  Mahaska County Sheriff Russ Van Renterghem (rent-er-hem) says his department was quite busy Sunday.

“From about 8:00 Sunday morning until 8:00 this morning, we had four accidents…..two accidents where a vehicle collided with another vehicle. We feel very fortunate they were all just property damage, no personal injuries on any of the four.  But we had close to 75 single vehicles sliding into ditches, getting stuck in snow, that type of thing that we did assist motorists with.”  Van Renterghem says things could have been worse.  “75 motorist-assists seems kind of high, but not when you consider the amount of traffic in Mahaska County.  I think a lot of folks just stayed home and rode the storm out at home.”

The National Weather Service also says 16 inches of snow fell in University Park, 15 inches in Bussey, 14 inches south of Knoxville, 13 inches of snow in Sigourney, 11-point-6 inches northeast of Blakesburg, 11 inches in Albia and between 4 and 8 inches of snow in Ottumwa.