A tornado has heavily damaged a large Pfizer pharmaceutical plant in North Carolina
— A tornado heavily damaged a major Pfizer pharmaceutical plant in North Carolina on Wednesday, the latest in a string of extreme weather events plaguing the U.S. on a day when floods deluged communities in Kentucky and scorching heat smothered Phoenix and Miami.
Pharmaceutical company Pfizer confirmed that the large manufacturing complex was damaged by a twister that touched down near Rocky Mount, but said via email that it had no reports of serious injuries there. It said in a later email, without giving workforce numbers, that the plant employees followed safety procedures and evacuated and all “are safe and accounted for.”
Parts of roofs were ripped open atop its massive buildings. The Pfizer plant stores large quantities of medicine that were tossed about by the storm, said Nash County Sheriff Keith Stone, adding, “I’ve got reports of 50,000 pallets of medicine that are strewn across the facility and damaged through the rain and the wind.”
The plant produces anesthesia and other drugs as well as nearly 25 percent of all sterile injectable medications used in U.S. hospitals, Pfizer said on its website. Erin Fox, senior pharmacy director at University of Utah Health, said the damage “will likely lead to long-term shortages while Pfizer works to either move production to other sites or rebuilds.”
The National Weather Service said in a tweet that the damage was consistent with an EF3 tornado with wind speeds up to 150 mph (240 kph). The storm temporarily closed a stretch of Interstate 95 in both directions in North Carolina, causing miles (kilometers) of congestion.
Elsewhere, an onslaught of searing temperatures and rising floodwaters continued to lash out at other parts of the U.S., with Phoenix breaking an all-time temperature record and rescuers pulling people from rain-swamped homes and vehicles in Kentucky. Forecasters said little relief appears in sight after days of extreme weather.
For example, Miami has endured a heat index of at 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) or more for weeks, with temperatures expected to rise this weekend.
