At least 16 people were injured, two seriously, when a twister fell over North Carolina and caused serious damage to several structures, including a Pfizer laboratory warehouse, which had to be evacuated.
The authorities are evaluating this Thursday the damage caused by the tornado, which reached up to 240 kilometers per hour and wreaked havoc for half an hour on Wednesday afternoon.
The phenomenon covered 27 kilometers (16.5 miles) the Dortches and Nash counties72 kilometers northeast of Raleigh, and concluded 15 kilometers northeast of Battleboro, in Edgecombe County.
The company Pfizer, which among other medicines produces a covid-19 vaccine and the viagraconfirmed that the tornado caused damage to one of its plants located near Rocky Mount, and that all its employees there were evacuated.
The National Weather Service (NWS) specified that the maximum width of the phenomenon was about 600 meters and it was the first category EF-3 tornado in the central region of North Carolina in July.
A Nash County spokesman said more than a dozen people received medical attention for minor injuries as a result of the storm.
The Edgecombe County Sheriff’s Office said on its Facebook page that there were reports of three people injured in the tornado, with two of them sustaining serious injuries.
Nash County Sheriff Keith Stone said the tornado ripped off parts of the roof on buildings where Pfizer stores drugs that were scattered over a wide area.
The damaged plant produces anesthesia and other medical compounds and nearly 25% of all sterile injectable drugs used in US hospitals, according to Pfizer information on its website.
