During the night of June 29-30, the Rhone river burst its banks after persistent heavy rainfall and flooded parts of the city of Sierre and other regions in the canton of Valais, in Switzerland. Our Novelis plant in Sierre was also affected by this natural catastrophe. Overnight, vast amounts of water entered the factory premises and production halls, also bringing mud and sand. Thankfully, no one was injured. Our emergency protocols were immediately activated and executed in collaboration with the city fire brigades and official authorities. All employees were safely evacuated, production operations have been halted and access to the plant was restricted for two days for security reasons. After safe access could be restored, today around 150 Novelis Sierre colleagues were back on site to help cleaning and restoring our plant. The amount of collaboration among our team and all people involved in the emergency response and recovery efforts was extraordinary. A very heartful and big thank you to the Sierre fire brigade and other official authorities for helping us in the past two days in this difficult situation with removing water from the basements and restoring the plant area. We continue our tireless work to bring our plant back into good shape with great strides. We also extend our deepest sympathy to the Sierre community and all the people in the surrounding area and wish those affected a quick recovery.
Larry Meyers
5d
Thankfully no one was injured. This incident is just one more example of the biggest risk facing global supply chains and a high functioning global economy…weather. Whether global warming is caused by mankind, space aliens or goblins, we need to take it seriously.
My heart and thoughts go out to those at the Sierre plant, Sierre citizens and all in La Valais region. I had the great pleasure of spending 6 weeks in Sierre and the region when I brought groups over for training as the CASH lines in Oswego, NY were being built. I was so impressed with the professionalism and hospitality of those at the Sierre plant. This was one of the highlights of my 37 year career with Alcan/Novelis. I brought my wife back to Sierre a few years later to show her the beauty of the region. I know you will recover, my thoughts are with you my friends. Mark
I got so many many calls which offered support for the Plant team around Serge Gaudin, this is so heartwarming and motivating: amazing spirit from our network ❤️. The team is fighting the losses and damages - keep on going.
I deeply regret this disaster in Sierre, but you together with the great Sierre team will succeed a quick recovery. I am close to all of you from all my heart.
Thank you for this meaningful report and wishing all @ Novelis enough energy to get back to normal in due time and of course I hope that more effort will be made by the executives @valais/Wallis to prevent such incidents.
I Hope that the comments we made during our visit years ago have helped to mitigate the impact of the event…
Sorry to hear about this catastrophe. Our prayers and thoughts are with you all. Best wishes for quick recovery of Sierre plant
We keep our fingers crossed that the quality of surface and groundwater remains intact.
EHS Director Novelis North America at Novelis
5dIt is difficult to describe such a situation in words. But I know that the Novelis Sierre team will do everything in its power to ensure that the plant will soon be producing perfectly as it did before the major event.