How Hurricane Helene Could Destroy Your Computers

The last thing you would expect a hurricane to affect is computers. This sadly isn't the case for Spruce Pine, a rural town in North Carolina, and the rest of the world.

Spruce Pine is a tiny town in the Appalachian mountains, famous for its natural beauty and being the world's largest producer of ultra-pure quartz. However, Hurricane Helene dumped nearly two feet of water into Spruce Pine, flooding and destroying the mill and all roads leading to it. Not only is the mill destroyed, but all the workers are now stranded with no electricity or running water. 

With the production of quartz halted, the rest of the world begins to scramble to find a new supplier. 

Quartz may not seem like a very important material when building computers, but they can’t function without it. The main use of this pure quartz is to melt silicon. Highly pure quartz is the only substance in the world that can withstand the heat needed to melt silicon and be pure enough to not react with it. So it is the perfect material to use when building crucibles to melt silicon. Although this process has been adapted and changed many times in the past, it still has one major flaw – the quartz crucibles can only be used once. They can only be used once because of how pure they have to be. Any leftover residue of any other substance inside the crucible would ruin all of the silicon inside of it. Silicon is one of the most used materials in the world because semiconductors are made out of it. Semiconductors are essentially very small computer chips that are used to run anything from smartphones to LED lights.

Luckily for the nearly $600 billion semiconductor industry, there is a stockpile of high-purity quartz located away from the mines that will help soften the blow for semiconductor manufacturers. An estimate for how long the mines will be out of commission has still not been announced by either of the two mining companies that are located in Spruce Pine, but experts say it could take up to 4 weeks. This would be enough time for shortages to start happening and for prices to go up. 

Although the damage to the mines has been mostly repaired and there is no long-lasting destruction of the quartz itself, all of the equipment used to mine is destroyed. This wouldn't be a big issue if all of the major highways and roads leading to Spruce Pine weren't completely flooded. Food, water, and other necessities are being transported to Spruce Pine by helicopters, but as of right now mining equipment is not seen as important enough to be flown in. However, all of this could change soon as Sibelico, one of the mining companies, is currently working with the government to get equipment sent over as fast as possible. 

Although this hurricane was unexpected, especially for somewhere like Spruce Pine, this incident serves as a poignant reminder of why you shouldn't put all of your eggs in one basket.

By Gavin Morrissey