Even though hurricane Helene didn’t directly affect us, it is still going to have long-lasting effect on a lot of things.

Unbeknownst to me there is a mine in the tiny town of Spruce Pine, N.C., about an hour outside of Asheville, that produces a unique kind of high-purity quartz used in semiconductor manufacturing.

The town is the only place in the world where the uniquely high-quality mineral can be found in such large quantities and produced for such a low price.

Helene just wrecked it.

Closures from storm damage could lead to supply-chain bottlenecks  and price increases  for the chips used in AI, smartphones and cars.

And that doesn’t even take into affect the short-lived longshoreman strike.

Spruce Pine is like many, many areas in the Appalachians that have sustained catastrophic damage.

The two companies that operate the mines in Spruce Pine said they’ve shut down local facilities as widespread flooding, power and communications outages plague Appalachia in the wake of the storm.

Many people in the area, including mine employees and their families, are facing displacement and significant disruptions.

There are other heartbreaking situations like the workers from a plastic factory that were dismissed from their factory when flood waters began rising.

Some of those employees were swept away by raging flood waters likely never to be seen again.

And just think about the insurance implications from the historic storm.

The damage is more widespread than any hurricane in my memory.

Some are calling this a once-in-a-generation natural disaster.

So very sad.

Many of those poor souls have no food, water or communication ability.

And many are completely cut off from the outside world.