Kendall County Sheriff’s Office kept busy responding to weather related calls

With Mother Nature hitting the area with a one-two punch of snow followed by bitterly cold temperatures, the Kendall County Sheriff’s Office has responded to its fair share of weather-related incidents the past few days.

“Since Friday, we’ve responded to 15 crashes along with 155 motorist assists, where people are stuck and things like that,” Deputy Dan Briars, public information officer for the Kendall County Sheriff’s Office, said Tuesday afternoon.

Fortunately, road conditions across the county are beginning to improve, he said.

“The winds have calmed down,” Briars said. “I think that’s what causes a lot of the issues with drifting and things like that on the roadways. The plows have been out pretty much nonstop to get the roads cleared. For the most part, the roads are in decent shape. But with the extreme cold and the potential for drifting snow, it’s still potentially hazardous conditions.”

Those hazardous conditions were in place Sunday morning, when a motorist who became stranded and was running low on fuel on Creek Road near Galena Road, just north of Plano. The road was impassable because of significant snow drifting.

A Kendall County Sheriff’s deputy was able to rescue the motorist by using the department’s snowcat, a fully tracked vehicle designed to move on snow.

“Our number one priority is helping people who are in need of assistance,” Briars said. “It’s an important tool to have available.”

The department also did several well-being checks over the weekend.

“A lot of those have been in response to the weather,” Briars said.

Fortunately, temperatures will be on the rise starting Wednesday. The temperature is expected to hit 16 degrees on Wednesday and near 18 degrees on Thursday, according to the National Weather Service.

Temperatures are expected to dip again on Friday and Saturday and then rebound. Rain is in the forecast on Monday.