High winds sent power lines flapping and garbage cans flying in communities across Iowa today. With gusts to fifty and even 60 miles an hour, State public-safety spokesman Jim Saunders says some of the greatest hazard may be to drivers. It’s a difficult situation for semi drivers in particular, and operators of high-profile motorhomes.
When they’re out on the highway with that strong crosswind there have been times the patrol found vehicles blown right over. Saunders urges folks operating high-profile vehicles who find they’re having trouble keeping control to get off the road — pull into a rest area or truck stop and wait for the wind to subside before trying to go on.
He says drivers fighting the wind will have to stay alert, for the gusts and the lapses in that air pressure. It doesn’t take a whole lot to affect even a low-profile vehicle, from a car to a minivan, and when you get used to feeling the wind on a long drive and steering against it, then you may go under an overpass or behind trees and the momentary lack of wind can “snap” the car back in the other direction. The city of Waterloo called off today’s garbage collection because of the high winds.