Causing more than 215 deaths at last count and with hundreds more still missing, Hurricane Helene is the worst storm to hit the U.S. since Katrina, while its aftermath has now prompted production shutdowns at the GM Flint Assembly plant in Michigan and the GM Arlington Assembly plant in Texas.
While neither plant is anywhere near the flooding, mudslides, and other devastation caused by Hurricane Helene, both have been affected by impacts to their suppliers, the Detroit Free Press reports.
All production shifts at both manufacturing facilities were canceled on October 3rd and October 4th, 2024, as a result of the supplier disruptions. According to Tara Kuhnen, a GM spokeswoman, the automaker is “working with these suppliers to resume operations as quickly and safely as possible for their employees and communities.”
The two plants affected by the fallout from Hurricane Helene are among the most profitable operated by GM. Among the important models produced there, the Flint plant manufactures the Chevy Silverado HD pickup truck and the GMC Sierra HD pickup truck. Meanwhile, the Arlington plant in Texas produces the popular Chevy Tahoe and Chevy Suburban SUVs, as well as the GMC Yukon and the Cadillac Escalade.
One of Hurricane Helene’s worst-pummeled areas, Asheville, North Carolina, is home to one of the factories of Linamar Corporation, a Canadian-headquartered company that was a 2017 Supplier of the Year for GM. The manufacturer produces precision parts and structural components for GM engines and transmissions at its Asheville and Mills River plants. Both facilities are flooded, damaged – including a collapsed roof – and without power, while about 40 percent of the employees of the sites are still unreachable with communications and roads severed.
The impacts of Hurricane Helene include not only the dead and missing, but close to a million businesses and homes that have still not had electrical power restored. Many roads are deeply buried in mud, sand, or debris, while numerous employees of GM suppliers, even if they escaped the floodwaters and survived, have lost their houses, vehicles and possessions.
The production disruption at Flint and Arlington comes just as General Motors is in the midst of a squabble with the United Auto Workers (UAW) union at the Bowling Green Assembly plant, which produces the C8 Corvette.
A threatened strike at the Fort Wayne assembly plant in Roanoke, Indiana producing the Chevy Silverado 1500 and GMC Sierra 1500 pickups could cut even more deeply into production of The General’s bestselling models.
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