Helene headed to Florida's Gulf Coast

NSFW

 

Car industry faces choke point as US hurricane shuts down critical microchip mine (msn.com)

Global supplies of microchips that feature in cars and smartphones have been threatened after the US hurricane Helene forced the closure of a mine that is critical to production.

Flooding and power outages caused by the hurricane have shut down mining and processing operations at Spruce Pine, a quartz facility in a remote area of North Carolina.

The site, which is secretive and closely guarded, produces the vast majority of the quartz sand used to manufacture high-purity polysilicon crystals. The crystals are used to make modern semiconductors and solar panels, making it a singular choke point for supplies of the critical components.
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Sibelco, the mining company that owns most of the operations at Spruce Pine, said it had “temporarily halted” operations. However, it is possible that recovering from the weather event could take months, potentially disrupting supplies of silicon and leading to a new microchip supply crunch.

 

WOW!
That's embarrassing.

When disasters like this happen, it should automatically be all hands on deck.

Also all non essential foreign aid should be redirected to finance these efforts and the rebuild.

 

Story to go with X - Get It Done Now Biden/Harris:

People are Dying in Hurricane Helene's Aftermath While Government Helicopters Remain Grounded (townhall.com)

As time marches on, the aftermath of Hurricane Helene and catastrophic damage is becoming increasingly clear. Stranded Americans still are not getting the help they need and the situation is dire.

According to Republican Congressman Michael Walz, a number of military helicopters that could be used to rescue people, in places where road access in the mountains of North Carolina has been cut off, have not been deployed by the Biden administration.

Hundreds of people are still missing while cell service and clean drinking water are still unavailable in a number of areas.

 

Yep. There is a lot of suffering and a lot of people feeling like their government has abandoned them. There is a growing anger (fair or not) that the Feds are not doing enough (anything) to help those in need. Meanwhile aid flowing to Ukraine (that i absolutely support) makes a convenient straw man for the argument that the incumbents like them more than Americans. Will certainly affect the NC vote - a lot of hate voting against the current administration similar to Bush after Katrina. As the anger grows it may play a significant factor in the Presidential race. I look for trump to politicize the heck out of the situation.

 

Yet, at the heart of it is some truth. This is a/the raison d’etre for having a strong central government. The perception that not enough is being done - never mind the daunting logistical problems - will be fanned by those with other motives. Makes me ill to know its coming.

I donated some money to help - i’ll stop the rant mow.

 

My power is still out and I think it's going to be a couple more days. The county/city is a mix of Georgia Power and Colquit EMC. I have Colquit, and they have 27,000 customers still without power.