Flooding forces Quaker plant to close Damage not yet clear at historic oatmeal, cereal factory in Iowa By Mike Hughlett | Tribune reporter - June 14, 2008
Quaker Oats' Cedar Rapids,
Iowa, plant—billed as the world's largest cereal factory—is shut down and surrounded by water due to flooding, though the company said it doesn't yet expect any major supply disruptions.
The sprawling and historic Cedar Rapids plant has long pumped out Quaker's flagship oatmeal and packaged cereals, including Cap'n Crunch. Chicago-based Quaker, a unit of
PepsiCo Inc., also makes Aunt Jemima mixes, Rice-A-Roni and other pasta products.
But the Cedar Rapids cereal plant, located along the Cedar River, is Quaker's "most significant property" in North America, according to a filing with U.S. securities regulators.
Quaker shut the plant at 11 p.m. Wednesday as worries began to rise that the Cedar River would burst its banks. A skeleton crew was kept on, and sandbags and generators were brought in, said Candace Mueller, a Quaker spokeswoman. "Our employees put up a heroic effort to protect what they could."
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I feel for all those folks, it's tough to recover when your job gets washed away too. 
Suzie
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