1-24 NWR Collapsing onion facilities

This is your Northwest report for Tuesday, January 24 I'm David Sparks and onion packing plants and storage facilities in Idaho and Oregon are very much in the news given that they have been impacted by the snow and rain that has pelted us for months. Here is Chris Miyasako of Allendale produce company in Homedale, Idaho. "We haven't been hit, knock on wood, but several plants north of us have."

One such shop is Four Rivers Onion Packing in Weiser, Idaho. I talked with Ken Stewart, sales and operations manager. "We had quite a lot of what I call powder snow up on the roof of our packing plant As well as our storage buildings. We have eight or 10 of those that house onions. The roof that came down is the one that was over our packing line. When the rain came and saturated the snow that was on the roof, we did have about 20% to 25% of the roof on the one end collapsed. It collapsed on some of our main equipment but the major problem it has cost for us is that it has rendered our packing line inoperable until we can get the roof replaced."

Elsewhere, Oregon State University researchers have developed a new weapon in the battle against antibiotic-resistant germs - a molecule that neutralizes the bugs' ability to destroy the antibiotic.