At a Glance
- At least 16 people were injured.
- As many as 50,000 pallets of medicine may have been damaged at a Pfizer factory.
- A portion of Interstate 95 was shut down.
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More than a dozen people were injured, homes were destroyed and a massive pharmaceutical facility sustained major damage Wednesday when a tornado hit northeastern North Carolina.
The tornado may have wiped out massive amounts of medicine at a factory run by Pfizer, Nash County Sheriff Keith Stone said in an update on Facebook.
“I’ve got reports of 50,000 pallets of medicine that are strewn across the facility," Stone said.
“We have significant damage here in the county.”
(FORECAST: Severe Threat Continues Over Large Area Today And Tonight)
Nash County includes the city of Rocky Mount and the community of Dortches, about 50 miles northeast of Raleigh.
The Pfizer facility has more than 1.4 million square feet of manufacturing space and sits on 250 acres. The company says it is one of the largest plants of its kind in the world. According to a Pfizer website, the plant produces anesthesia and other drugs as well as nearly 25% of all sterile injectable medications used in U.S. hospitals.
Erin Fox, senior pharmacy director at University of Utah Health, told the Associated Press 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 the twister was "the first EF-3 tornado ever observed in central North Carolina in the month of July!"
Nash County reported that 13 people were injured and 89 structures were damaged due to the tornado, according to WRAL. Two of the injured were taken to UNC Health Nash Hospital for further evaluation.
In neighboring Edgecombe County, the Sheriff's Office said in a Facebook post, "There are a number of homes and businesses damaged or destroyed. We have had reports of 2 life threatening and 1 non-life threatening injury related to the storm and no deaths and for that, we are grateful."
Stone urged people to stay off roads and avoid downed trees and power lines.
“It’s just a dangerous situation," he said.
Video from WTVD-TV showed heavy damage to the Pfizer building.
Photos posted to social media by WRAL-TV showed at least one home completely destroyed.
The storm produced two reports of tornadoes in the area.
A portion of Interstate 95 was shut down due to fallen trees, and about 2,200 power outages were being reported in the affected area.
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Jimmy He contributed to this report.
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