A mountain laboratory had planned to replace its diesel generator before the winter. The contractor then announced that a damaged bridge would delay delivery of the new equipment. The director warned that the delay could spell difficulties for experiments requiring uninterrupted cooling. Fuel stocks were adequate for ordinary operations, but a week-long experiment would leave little reserve if the road remained closed. Rather than cancel the entire programme, the team postponed that experiment and continued projects whose samples could tolerate brief interruptions. A neighbouring laboratory offered space for the most sensitive samples, provided that the team arranged transport before the next storm.