Snow Buffets Parts of Iowa, Maine : In Idaho, Guardsmen Save Dike at Sewage Treatment Facility

Near-blizzard conditions in parts of Iowa on Saturday left motorists crowding truck stops to wait out the weather, while northern Maine got up to two feet of snow in its first big storm of the season.

In flood-plagued Idaho, an all-night effort by National Guardsmen apparently saved a dike around a sewage treatment plant that was threatened by rising waters from the ice-choked Snake River.

Maine battened down for a second blast as the fast-moving storm over the Midwest was expected to hit today with “even more potential than the one we had yesterday,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Ashley Badger in Portland. “Mostly all snow on this one.”

Northern Iowa Hard Hit

Winter storm watches and travelers’ advisories were posted along a line from Iowa to Maine. Up to five inches of snow propelled by wind blowing at more than 30 m.p.h. swept across much of Iowa, with the worst conditions in the northern part of the state.

“Visibility is down to 100 feet in some places,” said Yvonne Dundee of the Cerro Gordo County sheriff’s office. “The roads are mostly down to one lane.”

About 20 cars were involved in a chain-reaction crash on Interstate 35 about 10 miles north of Des Moines that injured five people and temporarily closed the highway’s southbound lanes, police said.

Roads elsewhere were just as slippery.

“We’re pulling them out of the ditches as fast as we can,” said a spokesman for the Iowa Highway Patrol in Fort Dodge.

At Boondocks USA, a popular truck stop along Interstate 35 north of Des Moines, business picked up as motorists pulled off to wait out the storm. “Some of them have been here quite a while,” said spokeswoman Lilian Thies, who said the crowd at times numbered 75 travelers.

Iced by Freezing Rain

While much of Iowa was buffeted by blowing snow, the Dubuque area in the northeast was iced by freezing rain.

Parts of southwestern Minnesota along the Iowa border also had 35 m.p.h. wind whipping up about six inches of new snow.

The storm that hit Maine early Saturday left 12 to 18 inches of snow in the north and the western mountains, with 25 inches at Ripogenus Dam just west of Millinocket, the weather service said. Millinocket had 17 inches of snow, and Bangor got about a foot of new powder.

Gusty wind and low temperatures brought wind chill to 45 below zero across northern Maine during the afternoon.

Ski area operators rejoiced even before homeowners were able to begin shoveling out their driveways.

“It’s fantastic snow--real light powder, just like they get out West,” spokesman Chris Emerson at the Sunday River ski area in Bethel said Friday night.

‘Need Snow for Business’

“We need the snow for the business,” said Alice Stein, co-owner of the Greenville Inn near Moosehead Lake, where an accumulation of 21 inches was reported. “We’ve got a lot now. We’re glad to see it up here.”

In the Pacific Northwest, where flooding from ice-jammed rivers has threatened homes, there was some relief as the Snake River rose only slightly on the Oregon side Saturday, a National Guard spokesman said. But the water was still too deep for about 12 families in the Ontario area to return home, said National Guard Capt. Theo Moore. The families were evacuated Thursday.

Floodwaters from the Snake River had spilled over a dike around a sewage treatment pond in Fruitland, Ida., early Saturday. But Guard officials said the dike was secure unless there is a sudden thaw and the river that serves as a border between the two states rises rapidly.

By midday, one foot had been added to the dike by guardsmen working since late Friday, a spokesman said. They were expected to add another foot by tonight.

Gov. John V. Evans ordered the Idaho National Guard out Friday when officials said floodwaters were within inches of the treatment pond, which holds 15 million gallons of sewage.

Contamination Feared

Officials feared the sewage would be washed into the Snake if the dikes failed, contaminating the river that is used as a source of domestic water by downstream communities in both states.

After almost a month of bitter cold, ice jams have formed on a 40-mile stretch of the Snake, shoving water out of its natural channel.

Elsewhere in Idaho, flooding was easing, Idaho Adjutant General Darrell Manning said.

The Salmon River in north-central Idaho, which has also flooded in recent years because of ice jams, was “looking pretty good” Saturday, Manning said. Minor flooding in Fremont County and near Mud Lake also appear to have declined, he said.

In Michigan, most of 120 evacuees had returned to their homes after ice formations along the St. Clair River caused flooding last week at Algonac.