A tornado touched down in North Carolina on Wednesday afternoon, downing trees, damaging homes and striking a pharmaceutical plant.
The twister was reported in Rocky Mount in Nash County, about 50 miles northeast of Raleigh, just after 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, the county government tweeted.
The roof of the Pfizer building in Rocky Mount was ripped off in the severe winds, but there were no reports of serious injuries, the company said in a statement.
The Pfizer plant stores large quantities of medicine that were tossed about, Nash County Sheriff Keith Stone said, 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% of all sterile injectable medications used in U.S. hospitals, Pfizer says on its website.
Erin Fox, the 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.”
There were reports that mobile homes and cars had also been damaged.
Interstate 95 was temporarily closed in both directions between exits 138 and 141 because of a downed tree, the state Transportation Department said. Highway 43 from Red Oak to Dortches was also closed, the Nash County Sheriff’s Office said.
The National Weather Service tweeted that the damage was consistent with an EF3 tornado with wind speeds up to 150 mph.
Gov. Roy Cooper said he spoke with the sheriffs of Nash and Edgecombe counties about the damage.
“State personnel are helping get roads open and providing other assistance as needed,” he tweeted.
Elsewhere, an onslaught of searing temperatures and rising floodwaters continued to lash out at other parts of the U.S., with Phoenix breaking a 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 100 degrees or more for weeks, and temperatures are expected to rise this weekend.
In Kentucky, meteorologists warned of a “life-threatening situation” in the communities of Mayfield and Wingo, which were inundated by flash flooding from waves of thunderstorms. Gov. Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency in those areas Wednesday as more storms threatened.
Forecasters expect up to 10 inches of rain could yet fall on parts of Kentucky, Illinois and Missouri near where the Ohio and Mississippi rivers converge.
