ANDOVER, MA -- A tractor trailer loaded with plywood rolled over on Route 495 south on Wednesday, May 26, causing a massive raffic jam, according to the Boston Herald.

ROSEBURG, OR — Several plywood plants in and around Roseburg, OR, reported hiring workers in recent weeks to “fill a gap in the supply of sanded plywood panels” previously produced in earthquake ravaged Chile, according to the Roseburg News-Review.

SANTIAGO, CHILE - Chile's Arauco has restarted some sawmill and plywood plants damaged by a massive earthquake last month, according to Reuters. Arauco said in a statement that four of its seven sawmill plants, four of its six manufacturing plants, two of four plywood factories and a power plant were back on stream. The company is still evaluating damage to five pulp plants that were shut down after the 8.8-magnitude quake. Read more.

Six hundred pounds of marijuana was found in this hollowed-out plywood.MONROE, LA – Ouachita Parish Sheriff’s Deputies of the Interstate Crimes Enforcement team confiscated 600 pounds of marijuana hidden in a hollowed-out stack of plywood being transported on a flat bed truck on Sunday night.

LIBBY, MT – Asbestos has been found in some of the large fragments of ash created by a Feb. 25 fire that destroyed a former plywood mill. According to the Missoulian, The fragments were spewed into the air and fell around the town of Libby. Some of the chunks, as large as 8 inches in diameter, were found a mile away from the scene of the blaze.

EUGENE, OR – A fire late Saturday, Feb. 27, caused an estimated $1 million in damage at the Emerald Forest Products plywood mill. According to KVAL, an employee said the fire started in the veneer drying area of the plant. “I was cleaning the line and out of my peripheral vision I saw a super heater explode and the fire went from one end of the mill faster then I could sprint to the other end of the mill. Flames going clear up to the roof, 20-30 feet," Travis White, told KVAL. The fire took about three hours to bring under control.

PORT ANGELES, WA – PenPly was scheduled to begin producing plywood on Monday, March 1, at a mill shut down for nearly two years.

BASILIAN PROVINCE, PHILIPPINES – Two Chinese nationals, held hostage by Al-Qaeda affiliated militants since last November, have been rescued. According to Xinhua, one of the two men is in critical condition. They were kidnapped when armed men stormed the plywood factory where they worked. A third hostage who was kidnapped at the same time was beheaded one month later. 

Video: How to right a flipped plywood truck

Of the dozen or so daily Google Alerts I subscribe to, the most anticipated is the one bearing the subject line “plywood.”