Many cities have been forced to ration salt after weeks of above-average snowfall and bone-chilling temperatures have nearly depleted their stockpiles , putting motorists, their passengers and pedestrians at risk.

Friday, February 7, 2014

Many cities have been forced to ration salt after weeks of above-average snowfall and bone-chilling temperatures have nearly depleted their stockpiles , putting motorists, their passengers and pedestrians at risk.

Business Insider

US Northeast Struggles To Handle Latest Series Of Storms

Scott Malone and Victoria Cavaliere Feb. 6, 2014, 6:27 AM 584

BOSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The latest in a rapid succession of brutal winter storms hit the United States on Wednesday, cutting power to over a million homes and businesses and playing havoc with road and air transport links. The snow and ice storms in the country's Northeast triggered states of emergency in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and some districts reported stocks of the salt used to keep roads ice-free were running low.
The hardest-hit state was Pennsylvania, where 849,000 customers were without electricity at one point, according to the governor. By 8 p.m. local time (0100 GMT Thursday), the figure was just over 625,000, said Cory Angell, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency.
In all, over a million Northeast homes and businesses were cut off, according to local power companies.
Throughout the United States, 2,893 flights were canceled on Wednesday, according to FlightAware.com, an online flight tracking site.
In the Northeast, roughly half the departing flights were canceled out of Newark Liberty International, LaGuardia inNew York and Boston's Logan International, FlightAware said.
Snow continued to fall in patches along the East Coast, but by early on Thursday the storm looked to have largely run its course, a forecaster at the National Weather Service said.

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Image: A plow cleans up North Ave. in Garwood, N.J.

John Makely / NBC News 2 days

Deep Freeze

Pinched: Salt Shortage Leads to Dangerously Slippery Streets

By Jeff Black and Daniel Arkin

As if traffic snarls, scrubbed flights and power outages weren’t enough misery, the latest bit of winter savagery to hit the Midwest and the East is an extreme shortage of the salt used to clear snow and ice off roadways.

Many cities have been forced to ration salt after weeks of above-average snowfall and bone-chilling temperatures have nearly depleted their stockpiles.

That’s left many streets treacherously slippery, putting motorists, their passengers and pedestrians at risk.

By the end of January, for instance, the Pennsylvania Transportation Department had burned through 686,000 tons of salt — upwards of 200,000 tons more than used during an average year, according to the Associated Press.

In Illinois, Chicago's supply is holding up, but the suburbs are hurting.

"If we don't get the salt, at some point people are going to be sliding all over the place like what you saw in Atlanta," Julius Hansen, the public works director in the Chicago suburb of Glen Ellyn, told the AP, referencing the motorists stranded in the South last week.

Salt producers in Kansas and elsewhere said they were out of rock salt or close to it.

Officials in New York and New Jersey also warned they were running short of the rock salt.

New York City has spread some 346,000 tons of rock salt on its roads so far this year, about the total for all of last winter, Belinda Mager, a spokeswoman for the city Department of Sanitation said.

The rapidly shrinking supply of salt has sent prices skyrocketing as officials stretch resources thin and scramble to find alternatives — like the processed sugar beet molasses being tested in Pennsylvania's Butler County.

Store owners, too, are getting squeezed.

"I have people calling from all parts of the East Coast looking for it, and we just have nothing."

"We're just continuing to get crushed by these storms. With major rock salt shortages, it's starting to get scary out there," Anthony Scorzetti, a hardware and paint manager for Braen Supply in Wanaque, New Jersey, told Reuters.

"I have people calling from all parts of the East Coast looking for it, and we just have nothing."

Some 77 million Americans were under storm warnings and hundreds of thousands were without power Wednesday as the winter blast that wreaked havoc across the nation’s midsection roared into the Northeast.

“The worst will be along the higher terrain, around central New England,” said Benjamin Sipprell, a National Weather Service meteorologist. “Southern parts of Vermont and New Hampshire around the border with Massachusetts could see up to around a foot of snow.”

The onslaught of ice dragged down power lines. More than 849,000 people were without power in eastern and central Pennsylvania at one point, prompting the governor to declare an emergency. Crews managed to cut that down to 625,000 by Wednesday night.

In New Jersey, where Gov. Chris Christie ordered a state of emergency, the state's largest utility PSE&G reported about 9,000 customers without power Wednesday night, down from about 75,000 outages.

Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy called on residents to stay off roads. Parts of the state have reported 10 inches or more of snow.

“With heavy snow falling across the state and a mix of sleet and freezing rain on the way, I am asking residents to avoid unnecessary travel,” Malloy said. “If you can stay home or work from home, please do.”

In Connecticut, more than 300 traffic accidents were reported on major roadways and side streets on Wednesday.

“Everyone was skidding all over the place," Bruce Small, 58, an aircraft mechanic from Millford told Reuters.

More than 2,500 flights across the country were canceled, with airports and passengers in New York, Boston and Chicago bearing the brunt. Most of the flights not scrubbed were experiencing delays.

Commuters across the region creeped to work. Making matters worse, a “significant” power outage crippled service on at least three major subways lines in New York City during the early morning commute — including at Times Square, the busiest station in the busiest subway system in the country. By the end of the morning rush, the issue had been fixed, city officials said.

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NBC U.S. news

Salt in the Wound: Rugged Winter Drains Road Budgets, Supplies

As storm after ferocious storm wallops the country this winter, many cities have been forced to ration resources amid a shortage of the road salt used to melt snow.

Many communities from the Midwest to the Mid-Atlantic that have already been pounded by above-average snowfall and bone-chilling temperatures have nearly depleted their supply of salt, leaving streets treacherously slippery.

In Illinois, Chicago's supply is holding up, but the suburbs are hurting.

Store owners, too, are getting squeezed. "We're just continuing to get crushed by these storms. With major rock salt shortages, it's starting to get scary out there," Anthony Scorzetti, a hardware and paint manager for Braen Supply in Wanaque, New Jersey, told Reuters.