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“Eerie” feeling from empty JBS plant after cyberattack shutdown

JBS, one of the nation’s largest meat packing plants, continues to ramp up production following the cyberattack earlier this week.  But operations are at a standstill for one of its largest facilities.

“I’ve seen a lot of reporters.  I’ve seen a lot of people taking pictures, but what I haven’t seen is a lot of activity,” Andrea Marks-Hershberger with the U.S. Cattlemen’s Association says.

She tells Brownfield she lives just 10 blocks from the plant in Greeley and drove by it several times on Wednesday. “All the gates were shut and locked.  JBS is a pillar of our community and when you’re down by the plant, there’s constant condensation coming out of the stacks from the plant, trucks coming in and out and there was not trucks.  There was none,” Marks-Hershberger says.

She tells Brownfield she gets an ‘eerie’ feeling looking at the shuttered plant. “When things are moving at a normal pace, it’s very comforting to see that happen.  When you don’t see that knowing what happened, it almost hurts your heart a little bit because I know everyone of those drivers staged in those lines weren’t there making money.”

JBS says most of its plants are expected to be back up and running. Nine beef plants were closed, and production was disrupted at poultry and pork plants across the country.