CHICAGO, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Hurricane Helene shut at

least two poultry plants in Georgia and North Carolina and

twisted cotton crops in South Carolina in blows to U.S. food and

fiber production, company and agriculture officials said on

Monday.

More than 100 deaths across a half-dozen states have been

attributed to the powerful storm that slammed into Florida's Big

Bend region late on Thursday before cutting a destructive path

through Georgia and into the Carolinas.

Wayne-Sanderson Farms, the nation's third largest poultry

producer, closed a Moultrie, Georgia, processing plant due to a

loss of electrical power from downed transmission lines, company

spokesman Frank Singleton said.

The complex processes 1.3 million chickens weekly and its

timeline for resuming operations depends on Georgia Power ( GPJA )

crews restoring power, Singleton said. The company is

providing fuel deliveries to local farms that also lost power,

he said.

In South Carolina, many poultry operations are running on

backup generators, said Eva Moore, spokesperson for the South

Carolina Department of Agriculture. The state's cotton crops

took a big hit, she added.

"Open bolls have been knocked around, and plants are

twisted," Moore said. "This will make for a complicated harvest

and may affect the grades of the cotton."

Concerns over potential crop damage in key growing areas

boosted ICE cotton futures.

In North Carolina, Smithfield Foods, the world's largest

pork processor, said transportation for its hog production

operations was strained but the company did not suffer material

disruptions.

A chicken plant near Morganton, North Carolina, is down,

said Bob Ford, executive director of the North Carolina Poultry

Federation. Still, the poultry industry was generally lucky

because feed mills are operating and floods largely did not

affect farms, he said.

For live chickens around Morganton, "they're just going to

get fatter" until the processing plant reopens, possibly on

Wednesday, Ford said.