Even salt is out of stock

Dutch face shortage of salt to clear icy roads

From Expatica.com, 3 March 2005

AMSTERDAM — As snowfalls recede, the Netherlands faces up to the next challenge: a big freeze and a shortage of salt to grit icy roads.

Some municipalities had warned by mid-Thursday that motorists should leave the car at home on Friday. This is because supplies of gritting salt are running out and suppliers are operating a waiting list.

Similar shortages were also reported in Belgium and Germany.

Dutch weather bureau KNMI said that a complex frontal system stretching from northern Germany to the northwest of France had caused heavy cloud cover with only sporadic light snow showers across the Netherlands on Thursday.

The temperature stayed under freezing (minus 1 degree

Celsius) with moderate and a fairly strong north-easterly wind along the coast.

KNMI forecast conditions would clear from the north gradually overnight, accompanied by a sharp drop in temperature. This could lead to temperatures of minus 15 degrees in places.

By Friday morning, thick cloud cover would materialise from the west and there might be more snow, but limited to 1 to 3cm. The temperature will stay around the freezing point.

Meanwhile, news agency ANP reported that the Winterswijk municipality had only enough salt left for Thursday and Oosterhout in North Brabant had only enough for emergencies. Other local governments are reporting similar problems.

Comments

[Feng Ye]

Absolutely true. What about TPG? Listern to this:
I've recieved a note to pick up my post, but when I went to the post office/warehouse, they could not find it. Apparently something went wrong during the delivery. They asked me kindly to call back tomorrow.
When I called back the next morning, a girl was on the phone, and after I explained the situation, she said: 'I'm sorry, I can not help. Your post is just lost. As we are dealing with more than a million posts per day, it is not common that your post got lost!'