Twisters a new blow to fragile economy

WASHINGTON — The tornadoes that swept the South caused widespread power outages, shut down several manufacturing plants and could disrupt the region's fragile economic recovery.

Most economists said the setback likely will be temporary. Martin Soler, an associate economist at Moody's Analytics, said Alabama's economy already was struggling to recover from the recession, and the storms probably will set it back further.

The state's unemployment rate was 9.2 percent in March, worse than the national rate of 8.8 percent.

Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Toyota and Mercedes idled plants in Alabama, mostly because the factories lost power, and the plants likely will reopen within days.

A Boeing factory in Huntsville was closed because of power outages "until further notice," a spokeswoman said.

Many overseas auto firms have set up shop in the South in the past decade, including Alabama, South Carolina and Tennessee. Those plants, in turn, have spawned networks of parts suppliers. If those parts suppliers are badly damaged, auto production in the region could face a longer disruption. The tornado damage compounds troubles for the auto industry, already experiencing parts shortages from Japanese factories damaged by the March 11 quake and tsunami.

Separately, Alabama's agriculture commissioner said the tornadoes and storms caused multimillion-dollar damage to the poultry industry. Commissioner John McMillan said about 200 poultry houses were destroyed and 180 damaged. A standard poultry house can hold about 20,000 chickens.

Hundreds of small businesses also were damaged or destroyed in Tuscaloosa. "It's just unrecognizable," said Robin Jenkins, of the Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama.