NORMAL -- Salt, or similar products to melt ice, was in very short supply in the Twin Cities and elsewhere Monday. The town of Normal tired to help out by dumping 6 tons of free salt outside Home Depot in the afternoon, but it was gone in about 30 minutes.

"People just swarmed around it," said Kevin Weuve, general manager of Home Depot, 795 N. Veterans Parkway. "No one in town has it.

"The phone rings every 30 seconds looking for salt."

Ron Breidel, store manager of Farm & Fleet on Illinois 9 West in Bloomington, confirmed Monday evening that his store was sold out.

"There is no grain of salt in the store. We are completely out," Breidel said.

Both store managers said their stores were on priority lists for semitrailers to deliver more salt, but neither had an exact time of arrival. They suggested customers call first.

Breidel said there were about two dozen people at the door to buy salt when he opened the store Monday morning.

With sidewalk salt gone by noon Sunday, Breidel said people bought water-softener salt. He said nearly 700 50-pound bags were sold between 8:30 a.m. and 10 a.m. Monday.

And when the coarser water-softener salt was gone, they cleaned out the supply of water softener pellets too.

Breidle said the shortage was everywhere in areas affected by the ice storms. A semitrailer load that arrived Thursday morning at Farm & Fleet was gone by Friday night. Another load sold out from 10 a.m. Saturday to Sunday noon. Each semitrailer has 16 to 18 pallets each with 49 bags weighing 50 pounds each.

Breidel said amounts of salt sold to customers who were contractors were limited to give homeowners a chance at getting a bag.

Home Depot sold 800 50-pound bags both Sunday and Monday, said Weuve.

"We've probably sold more in this last week than we did all last year," the Home Depot manager said.