Winter Storms Halt Shipments

January 3, 2001 10:40 AM, EST

A barrage of ice and snow storms Christmas week brought truck, train and air shipments in the Midwest to a halt, cut power to 500,000 residents and businesses in several states and left a layer of glaring ice on pavements from New Mexico to Arkansas.

Officials in Arkansas called the state’s roads “skating rinks,” while a deputy constable in Garza County, Texas, told the Associated Press his workers couldn’t salt the roads fast enough to stave off the ice.

Travelers and freight were packed into airports like sardines, waiting for long-delayed flights.

While phones went unanswered at some freight companies in the hardest hit areas, other carriers were able to keeping moving through the worst of it.

For the full story, see the Jan. 1 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.