Hurricanes disrupting tech supply-chains, companies

Keep going, right on down the line.

As the Southeast struggles to fix the damage from Hurricanes Helene and Milton, the damage to the tech supply-chain may have ramifications for weeks.

Nandy Vaisman, VP of operations and CISO at Vim, told IT Brew that he believes the full extent of the damage is still unknown.

“We haven’t realized what exactly went on,” Vaisman said. “I saw some footage from things that happened in the Tampa Bay area—I wonder, when it cools down, what we’ll see and what the actual impact is.”

See right through you. Helene specifically will have an effect on the tech industry. The storm slammed North Carolina, dumping rain in the Blue Ridge Mountains—an important locale for tech. Quartz mined in the region is used for semiconductor chips, and the disruption to the supply chain for these vital components threatens Silicon Valley and the sector at large.

Mines run by Sibelco and The Quartz Corp near the town of Spruce Pine have shut down. Seaver Wang, Breakthrough Institute climate and energy program co-director, told CNN that the importance of the mines can’t be understated.

“If you wanted to identify one mine complex that is critically important to the semiconductor manufacturing industry, and also solar panel industry, it’s the Sibelco and The Quartz Corp mines in Spruce Pine,” Wang said.

Repairs are ongoing for the entire region, Blue Ridge Technology owner Zack Calloway told IT Pro Today. The challenges for IT teams are major, related in large part to connectivity.

“Many of our clients have been told that their fiber and co-ax connections may not be restored for four weeks or more,” Calloway said. “Unfortunately, cellular service, which many clients use as a backup, is nearly unusable at the moment.”

Big damage. Milton’s damage is less targeted on the tech sector. There’s not the same tech-distinct manufacturing industry in Florida. But the state is a major economy and, as a peninsula, a major shipping hub for the southeastern corner of the country.

“For shippers, this is the perfect storm of disruption, and real-time visibility into the supply chain is no longer a luxury—it’s a necessity,” Jenna Slagle wrote.” Without it, companies risk missing crucial updates on rerouted shipments, changes in inventory, and potential delays.”