While we wait to see exactly how much damage Hurricane Milton caused in Florida overnight, we can check in with the cleanup from Hurricane Helene, which hit the U.S. nearly two weeks ago.
Medical equipment maker and supplier Baxter International Inc. has started restoration of its North Cove plant in Marion, N.C., that was damaged by floods from Hurricane Helene, but it will take time to fully reopen.
The site closed when Helene came through the region in late September. North Cove is Baxter's largest manufacturing site worldwide, with 2,500 employees. It uses plastics in IV bags, tubing and other end products that are filled, packaged and shipped for dialysis patients and other treatment systems from North Cove. The site's importance was emphasized when the American Hospital Association asked the White House to clear red tape needed to bring in other companies that could fill gaps in the supply chain. Production will restart in phases in Marion, with 90-100 percent of "certain IV solution product codes" by the end of this year.
"We will spare no resource — human or financial — to restart operations and help ensure patients and providers have the products they needed," CEO Joe Almeida added in a news release.
Hurricane Milton, meanwhile, is complicating the national IV shortage issue. Baxter competitor B. Braun Medical's IV solutions and distribution plant is in a flood-prone region of Daytona Beach, Fla., in Milton's path.
The company is working with the federal government's Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) to move inventory from Daytona Beach to a secure, temperature-controlled facility north of Florida, B. Braun said in an Oct. 9 statement. It also has increased production at another plant in Irvine, Calif.
