hurricane helene

As hospitals struggle with IV fluid shortage, NC plant restarts production

baxter, drugs, Fluid, health, hospitals, hurricane helene, iV, North Carolina, Science, shortage / Mike M. / November 1, 2024

The western North Carolina plant that makes 60 percent of the country’s intravenous fluid supply has restarted its highest-producing manufacturing line after being ravaged by flooding brought by Hurricane Helene last month.

While it’s an encouraging sign of recovery as hospitals nationwide struggle with shortages of fluids, supply is still likely to remain tight for the coming weeks.

IV fluid maker Baxter Inc, which runs the Marion plant inundated by Helene, said Thursday that the restarted production line could produce, at peak, 25 percent of the plant’s total production and about 50 percent of the plant’s production of one-liter IV solutions, the product most commonly used by hospitals and clinics.

“Recovery progress at our North Cove site continues to be very encouraging,” Baxter CEO and President José Almeida said. “In a matter of weeks, our team has advanced from the depths of Hurricane Helene’s impact to restarting our highest-throughput manufacturing line. This is a pivotal milestone, but more hard work remains as we work to return the plant to full production.”

Overall, Baxter said it is ahead of its previously projected timeline for getting the massive plant back up and running. Previously, the company said it had aimed to produce 90–100 percent of some products by the end of the year. Still, the initial batches now under production are expected to start shipping in late November at the earliest.

One of the many challenges to restoring the facility was the lack of access to the site; Helene had damaged an access bridge. In its latest announcement, Baxter said that a temporary bridge—built with support from North Carolina’s Department of Transportation and the federal Administration of Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR)—has allowed the transport of more than 885 truckloads of existing inventory out of the plant since Helene. A second temporary bridge, expected to be completed in early November, will enable further access of traffic and equipment to the site.

As hospitals struggle with IV fluid shortage, NC plant restarts production Read More »

Rapid analysis finds climate change’s fingerprint on Hurricane Helene

The researchers identified two distinct events associated with Helene’s landfall. The first was its actual landfall along the Florida coast. The second was the intense rainfall on the North Carolina/Tennessee border. This rainfall came against a backdrop of previous heavy rain caused by a stalled cold front meeting moisture brought north by the fringes of the hurricane. These two regions were examined separately.

A changed climate

In these two regions, the influence of climate change is estimated to have caused a 10 percent increase in the intensity of the rainfall. That may not seem like much, but it adds up. Over both a two- and three-day window centered on the point of maximal rainfall, climate change is estimated to have increased rainfall along the Florida Coast by 40 percent. For the southern Appalachians, the boost in rainfall is estimated to have been 70 percent.

The probability of storms with the wind intensity of Helene hitting land near where it did is about a once-in-130-year event in the IRIS dataset. Climate change has altered that so it’s now expected to return about once every 50 years. The high sea surface temperatures that helped fuel Helene are estimated to have been made as much as 500 times more likely by our changed climate.

Overall, the researchers estimate that rain events like Helene’s landfall should now be expected about once every seven years, although the uncertainty is large (running from three to 25 years). For the Appalachian region, where rainfall events this severe don’t appear in our records, they are likely to now be a once-in-every-70-years event thanks to climate warming (with an uncertainty of between 20 and 3,000 years).

“Together, these findings show that climate change is enhancing conditions conducive to the most powerful hurricanes like Helene, with more intense rainfall totals and wind speeds,” the researchers behind the work conclude.