Schools across the state sent students home on Thursday before the storm hit, and told them to stay home on Friday.

The National Weather Service said Friday that up to 11 inches of snow had fallen in northern Iowa, with a-half inch of ice in the south and a mix in central Iowa, including 1-2 inches of sleet.

The storm was expected to be out of Iowa by early afternoon.

Travel statewide was difficult because nearly all highways and roads were covered by snow or ice.

In Fayette County in northeast Iowa, authorities pulled the snowplows off the highways for a time Friday morning because blowing snow was creating white-out conditions.

Only scattered power outages were reported. MidAmerican Energy had about 400 customers without power in the Council Bluffs area early Friday.

Rod Donavon with the weather service in Johnston credited the lack of strong winds, which could wreak havoc on ice-covered power lines and trees.

“We didn’t have real significant winds overnight, which I think was the saving grace there, especially across the south with all the ice that developed,” he said

Another storm was expected on Saturday, with more snow across northern Iowa and bitterly cold temperatures and strong winds statewide, which could create near-blizzard conditions.

Donovan said temperatures were expected to plunge below zero Saturday night, with dangerous wind chill readings of 40 below zero.

Donovan said the Midwest has been caught in a stormy pattern, similar to last year.

“We’ve been having storms move through about every one or two days right now. That’s going to continue this week and maybe another little system on Tuesday.”