ANKENY, Iowa —With a blizzard roaring across Iowa, travel was extremely difficult.  Many roads were made almost impassible. One was Interstate 35. Even though the Iowa 511 website said the road was impassible, traffic still made its way northbound and southbound.

Around mid-morning a series of accidents led I-35 to close. For northbound travelers that meant getting near the I-35 rest stop.

Chris Reams of Runnells was on his way to work.

“I got north of Ankeny after that change I got rear-ended on the interstate and stopped in here,” said Reams.

Some were working as truckers.

“There were cars behind me with the construction down the middle of the road,” said Aaron Waddell, a trucker from Algona.

Waddell said when trying to break for all the stopped vehicles, he had nowhere to go, so he accidentally turned on to the rest stop ramp. He was trying to find out when he could leave to get home. Information about all the accidents was hard to come by, so drivers couldn’t find out when the road would open.

“Nobody on the CB, nobody upfront to say what’s going on,” said Waddell.

“Coming on the I-35 heading northbound from Des Moines past Ankeny all the winds just came and just total white out conditions,“ said Jeremy Walters, from Madrid. “It’s just like God saying hey you need to pull off Interstate 35 because my windshield wiper blade broke.”

Others were traveling with family.

“We’re trying to go to Ames I don’t think that’s going to happen today,” said Jacob Mead, or Ankeny. “We’re going to make it to the next exit and probably turn around. Should’ve listened to the wife. She told me to turn around earlier.”

The interstate opened for northbound traffic in mid-afternoon. Authorities were still cleaning up traffic accidents in the southbound lanes on Wednesday afternoon.

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