More Than 316 Industrial Plants in Iowa Flood Area

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Flooding in the Midwest, particularly in Iowa, has prompted Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas) to survey the affected counties and determine just how many industrial plants could be impaired by rising flood waters, breached levees and damaged infrastructure including washed-out roads and railroad bridges. Union Pacific, which operates almost 1,500 miles of rail in Iowa, has suffered numerous main line washouts near Tama and Waterloo, Iowa. Reports claim that up to 20% of the state's corn and soybean crop could be lost, and damage is estimated at a minimum of $1.5 billion and could exceed $3 billion. A quick search using Industrial Info's exclusive PECWeb plant search tool identified more than 316 major industrial plants in 30 Iowa counties along the Iowa, Des Moines and Cedar rivers. A good number of those plants have been flooded, or have been closed due to inaccessibility.

Click on the image at right to view a chart showing the distribution of industrial plants in the Iowa flood area.

The Industrial Manufacturing Industry has 64 manufacturing plants in this area, including John Deere's (NYSE:DE) (Moline, Illinois) Waterloo plant, which has been affected by rail washouts, but remains open. Amana Refrigeration in Amana, Iowa flooded. A Case New Holland (NYSE:CNH) (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) plant in Burlington and a Firestone Ag Tire plant in Des Moines could be in harm's way.

Ninety-three Food & Beverage Industry plants could experience flooding problems. Reports have already been released that Archer Daniel Midland's (NYSE:ADM) (Decatur, Illinois) corn-processing operations in Cedar Rapids was closed. Other big plants like Cargill, Quaker Oats, Tyson Pork (NYSE:TSN) (Springdale, Arizona) and Penford (NASDAQ:PENX) (Centennial, Colorado) plants have all been shuttered.

Forty-one power plants could be flooded, as well. Alliant Energy Corporation's (NYSE:LNT) (Madison, Wisconsin) Interstate Power & Light subsidiary shut three coal-fired power plants in Iowa.

Thirty Metals & Minerals Industry plants fall along riverways that could be affected. Other industries include 20 Pharmaceuticals & Biotech plants and 13 plants in the Chemical Processing Industry. In the Alternative Fuels Industry, 300 million gallons of ethanol capacity is offline. An estimated seven Pulp & Paper-related operations could be affected, along with 14 fuel-distribution terminals and 12 pipeline operations.

Verifying just exactly who is running and who is not was spotty because telephone communications were not always available. Industrial Info intends to revisit plants in the flood zone after the water recedes and find out who will be requiring service people and contractors to get plants back up and running as soon as possible.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is a marketing information service specializing in industrial process, energy and financial related markets with products and services ranging from industry news, analytics, forecasting, plant and project databases, as well as multimedia services.