St. Louis, MO, September 22--Hurricane Ivan affected Solutia Inc.'s Integrated Nylon operations at Pensacola, Fla., and Foley, Ala., and its CPFilms operations at Martinsville, Va.
Ivan came ashore at Gulf Shores, Ala., early Thursday morning, Sept. 16, near Solutia's Foley and Pensacola plants. A tornado from Ivan's outer bands struck the Martinsville plant on Friday, Sept. 17. There was no damage at the CPFilms facility in nearby Axton, Va.
The company continues to assess the impact of the hurricane on its facilities. "We are very thankful that no one was injured at our facilities, and are grateful to our employees and contractors who have been working diligently to restore our plants to normal operations," said Jeffry N. Quinn, president and CEO.
Initial assessments of Solutia's nylon plants in Pensacola, Fla., and nearby Foley, Ala., have revealed no significant damage. The Pensacola plant maintained power throughout the hurricane and continues to do so, due to the plant's internal power facility, which has allowed for continuation of a portion of the plant's operations.
Other manufacturing units at Pensacola were shut down, which the company executed in an orderly manner just prior to the hurricane. The plant staff and contractors are focused on bringing the remaining idle units back online in a safe and efficient manner.
At Foley, operations have largely returned to normal, following an orderly shutdown just prior to the hurricane. While preliminary assessments of infrastructure at these two plants have been fairly positive, the status of the region's transportation infrastructure -- particularly as it relates to barge and rail traffic -- remains uncertain and could slow the return to normal operations. Solutia is coordinating with customers of this business in order to minimize any potential disruption.
As the remnants of Hurricane Ivan pressed to the north, it spawned several tornadoes, including one that caused significant damage to Solutia's CPFilms plant in Martinsville, Va. Initial assessments indicate that of the two buildings at the Martinsville site, the administration and manufacturing building sustained significant structural damage due to high winds and rain, whereas the other manufacturing building incurred only minor structural damage.
The plant staff and contractors are now focused on safely and efficiently returning operations to normal. In addition, employees are using an off-site warehouse and coordinating with other CPFilms manufacturing sites in order to minimize any potential disruption with customers.
Solutia continues to evaluate the situation, and at this time has no estimate of the financial impact or of any potential insurance recovery as a result of this event.
