It’s difficult to overstate the impact that Hurricane Helene has had and continues to have on southeastern states such as North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Over 300 people have lost their lives, livestock have been killed or are still missing, and whole towns are without power or even passable road systems.
Florida was also hit by Helene and now is riding out another hurricane, Milton. While this second storm may not have as widespread an impact, it’s still a very damaging storm, and Josh Linville, fertilizer market analyst with StoneX, says the back-to-back storms may make phosphorus fertilizer access more difficult in the coming months.
Linville says that while many of the facilities hit by these storms will have been built to withstand the wind and water expected in hurricane conditions, it’s the people power required to run the plants that is the larger question mark. Ultimately, he says, employees and management of these plants will be hyper-focused on their homes and families and a return to water and power before they return to work (as they should be, of course).
That level of unknown and this already very destructive hurricane season creates some big question marks on phosphorus-based fertilizer availability not just now, but for several months to come, he says.
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