Survivors Say Factory Boss Made Them Stay at Work During Deadly Flood

Janna Brancolini
Wed, October 2, 2024 

GoFundMe


Survivors blasted a Tennessee plastics company for keeping workers on the job on Friday even as nearby flood waters rose, causing 11 people to be swept away when the plant was finally evacuated.

At least three people were killed and three remain missing, one of the survivors told local TV station WJHL 11. The others clung to floating plastic pipes and were dumped half a mile away on a pile of debris, another survivor, Jacob Ingram, told the Knoxville News Sentinel.

Managers at Impact Plastics in Erwin, Tenn., let employees move their cars as Hurricane Helene sent water from the nearby Nolichucky River surging into the company’s parking lot, but nobody was allowed to leave until the power had gone out and the water was nearly waist high, Ingram said.

The local district attorney has instructed the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to determine whether the company should have sent everyone home sooner, WJHL reports.

In a statement, the company denied threatening to fire anyone for leaving, but confirmed that employees were only dismissed when water began to cover the parking lot and the factory lost power. The TBI investigation will look into whether the company gave people the impression they had to stay, or forbade them from leaving until it was too late.

By the time they were told to leave, only vehicles with four-wheel drive could escape, Ingram said. He was one of 11 people fighting their way on foot through the parking lot’s rushing current when a truck driver from the company next door offered them refuge in his pickup truck.

Everyone climbed aboard. By then, the water was tossing vehicles around like they were toys, Ingram’s videos of the flood show. A piece of debris hit the truck, sending one of the women falling into the water. Then another piece hit, and another woman fell. When a third, larger piece struck, the truck flipped entirely, sending everyone overboard.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid02cTrsEaXb4Q3mM8JgyT3zJFKxqGFM1RNbigh5GPpKhjPSg8CnevJpZGFjk66QdKs9l&id=61557826408783

About an hour later, a Tennessee National Guard helicopter pulled Ingram and four other survivors from the debris pile. Their friends and colleagues remained missing.

One of the victims, Bertha Mendoza, 56, fell off the truck and was separated from her sister while they tried to stay afloat; her body was recovered two days later, according to a GoFundMe asking for help with the funeral expenses.

Others—like Rosa Maria Andrade Reynoso, Lidia Verdugo Gastelum and Monica Hernandez Coron—haven’t been found. Anxious family members, including Reynoso’s husband, have been holding up their photos at press conferences.

“We are devastated by the tragic loss of great employees,” Impact Plastics’ founder Gerald O’Connor said in a statement. “Those who are missing or deceased, and their families are in our thoughts and prayers.”

But survivors said the company hadn’t reached out to them.

And considering the storm and the flood warnings, “We shouldn’t have been there that day at all,” the victims’ colleague told the Washington Post.

TBI investigating Impact Plastics in Erwin after multiple employees died in flooding

Tyler Whetstone, Knoxville News Sentinel
Wed, October 2, 2024 at 8:25 AM MDT·4 min read

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has opened an investigation into Impact Plastics in Erwin, Knox News has learned. Employees of the company have alleged management didn’t allow workers to leave the facility even as flood warnings were issued and floodwaters from the Nolichucky River swamped the building.

Two of the women in the group of Impact Plastics employees died, according to an immigrants rights group that has been working with families of some of the employees who worked. At least three are missing. The company confirmed the death of one person but did not give details about their identity.

Knox News has detailed how a group of employees jumped on the back of a flatbed semitruck parked at the business next door as waters rose waist-high in the Riverview Industrial Park where both businesses are located.

The truck was swarmed by flood waters from the raging Nolichucky River and eventually flipped. The factory sits a mile north of Unicoi County Hospital, the site of a dramatic helicopter rescue that same day of 62 staff and patients stranded on the roof as the river brook loose from its banks.

More: TN factory employees die in flood Impact Plastics employees clung desperately to a truck before Helene floodwaters swept them away

A TBI spokesperson confirmed Oct. 1 that District Attorney Steve Finney requested the TBI investigate the business, though the spokesperson declined to offer details about the investigation other than that it involves Impact Plastics.

Finney released a statement saying, ""Early yesterday morning, I spoke with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and requested that they look into allegations involving Impact Plastics in Unicoi County, Tennessee. Specifically, I asked that they review the occurrences of Friday, September 27, 2024, to identify any potential criminal violations."
Employees said they couldn’t leave

Impact Plastics employee Jacob Ingram told Knox News on Sept. 30 managers wouldn’t let employees leave and other employees have repeated the claim after press conferences and to other media outlets.

Instead, managers told people to move their cars away from the rising water. Ingram moved his two separate times because the water wouldn’t stop rising.

“They should’ve evacuated when we got the flash flood warnings, and when they saw the parking lot,” Ingram told Knox News. “When we moved our cars we should’ve evacuated then … we asked them if we should evacuate, and they told us not yet, it wasn’t bad enough.

“And by the time it was bad enough, it was too late unless you had a four-wheel-drive.”

More: Trucker saved workers in TN floods The long-haul trucker from Humble, Texas, became a hero at Impact Plastics amid floods in Erwin, Tennessee

The company, via a written statement issued Sept. 30, denied allegations that management forced anyone to continue working as waters rose outside. Further, the statement said, while most employees left immediately, some remained on or near the premises. It reiterated management and assistants were the last to exit the building.

Tony Treadway, a spokesperson for the company, told Knox News the TBI has not contacted them as of 11 a.m. Oct. 2. He said the company is conducting their own internal review "of activities and timelines of September 27th" and said the company would share the information when the review is complete.
The dead and the missing

Knox News verified at least five of the employees who were on the truck are either confirmed dead or are missing.

One of the employees who died, Bertha Mendoza, 56, fell off the truck and vanished into the flood, according to Ingram and a representative from Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition.

Mendoza was separated from her sister as the two tried to stay afloat, according to a GoFundMe page dedicated to her. Her body was found Sept. 29. Mendoza has not been publicly identified by officials.

The ruins of the Impact Plastics facility at Riverview Industrial Park on Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Erwin, Tennessee, in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Helene.

Monica Hernandez has been confirmed dead, according to the immigrants rights coalition, who said it confirmed her death with her family, who learned of it from the Unicoi County Emergency Management Agency on Oct. 1. Hernandez has not been publicly identified by officials.

Rosa Maria Andrade Reynoso, was missing as of Oct. 1. Her husband, Francesco Guerro, told Knox News through a translator that she was in communication with him throughout the morning and wasn’t sure if she could get out. She told him to take care of their kids, he said.

Another woman, Lydia Verdugo, has been identified as missing, according to the immigrants rights coalition. She has not been publicly identified by officials.

Still another man, Johnny Peterson, has been identified as dead by NBC News, but the outlet could not confirm he was an employee of Impact Plastics. He was on the truck as well, according to Ingram. Peterson has not been publicly identified by officials and Knox News has not confirmed whether he's missing or dead.

This story will be updated.

Tyler Whetstone is an investigative reporter focused on accountability journalism. Connect with Tyler by emailing him at tyler.whetstone@knoxnews.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @tyler_whetstone.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: TBI investigating Impact Plastics after employee deaths in flooding


After employees swept away in Helene flooding, Tennessee factory under investigation

Jeff Keeling
Wed, October 2, 2024 



JONESBOROUGH, Tenn. (WJHL) – Tennessee authorities are investigating the company that owns a plastics factory after workers were swept away by cataclysmic flooding unleashed by Hurricane Helene last week.

Two employees at Impact Plastics, located in Erwin, Tennessee, were found dead while more were still missing as of Tuesday.

According to that employee, supervisors never told the workers they could leave, even as the water started to rise outside.

Impact Plastics employee recounts narrow escape through floodwater in Erwin

On Wednesday, First Judicial District Attorney General Steve Finney confirmed the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation will investigate allegations involving Impact Plastics’ leadership’s actions during Friday’s flooding.

“I asked that they review the occurrences of Friday, September 27, 2024, to identify any potential criminal violations,” Finney said in the release.

The allegations referenced relate to whether, as water rapidly rose in a low-lying Erwin industrial park, the management of Impact Plastics didn’t send employees home soon enough, gave them the impression they weren’t free to leave, or specifically forbade them from leaving until it was too late.

The TBI confirmed its agents were “investigating allegations involving Impact Plastics” and referred all other questions to Finney’s office, which said it would have no further comment until the investigation concludes.
‘Supervisors didn’t tell us that we could go’

Impact Plastics employee Zinna Adkins stepped outside her workplace at 10:54 a.m. on Friday and captured water rising in the parking lot on her cell phone. But at that time, she said no supervisor informed employees they were free to leave.

“We were all talking to the supervisors and telling everybody, ‘Look, we don’t need to be here,’” Adkins recounted to WJHL. “Our phone alerts were saying we need to flee the areas. And they never said anything about it. And supervisors didn’t tell us that we could go.”

Adkins is among several employees who have asserted that they weren’t allowed to leave in time to avoid the storm’s impact.

Impact Plastics addresses ‘missing and deceased employees’ after floods

Adkins said that while she was never personally told not to leave, as a temporary employee, she didn’t feel she could abandon her job. By noon, with no power and floodwater nearly five feet high in the parking lot, Adkins said employees were told they could go home. But she said by then, it was too late.

“If it would have been any deeper, I wouldn’t want to walk through it. It was almost underneath my shoulders when I got through the parking lot,” Adkins said.

The raging waters swept 11 people away, and only five were rescued, according to a statement from Impact Plastics. Two of them are confirmed dead — part of a toll across six states that has surpassed 160.

In a statement to WJHL, Impact Plastics senior management offered “sympathy for the missing and deceased employees” but said, “employees were dismissed by management to return to their homes in time for them to escape the industrial park.”

“Impact Plastics has not been contacted by the TBI yet but will fully cooperate with their investigation,” said company spokesperson Tony Treadway. He said Impact Plastics is preparing an internal review which it will release to the public.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Tennessee factory employees clung to semitruck before Helene floodwaters swept them away

Tyler Whetstone, USA TODAY NETWORK
Tue, October 1, 2024

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. − A group of employees from a plastics factory clung to spools of flexible yellow plastic pipes on the back of a flatbed semitruck for hours waiting for help as the Nolichucky River raged around them as Helene hit eastern Tennessee Friday.

But the truck tipped over and at least seven people were swept away by the floodwaters, the Knoxville News Sentinel, part of the USA TODAY Network, has learned. The incident happened in Erwin, Tennessee, just a mile from Unicoi County Hospital, where that same day, dozens of staff and patients were stranded on a hospital roof prompting harrowing rescues.

At least one of the factory workers died, a woman, according to an immigrant advocacy group working with families of some of the employees. The company, Impact Plastics, confirmed the death of one other person but did not provide details.

"We are devastated by the tragic loss of great employees,” founder and CEO Gerald O’Connor said in a statement released Monday, indicating the toll may be higher than what's been confirmed so far. “Those who are missing or deceased, and their families are in our thoughts and prayers.”

The fate of the others is unknown, obscured by a lack of clear communication from state and local leaders compounded by the confusion caused by widespread devastation that knocked out electricity and communications, making it difficult to track down people who are unaccounted for across the region.

The flooding in Erwin, especially near the Riverview Industrial Park where the Impact Plastics factory is located, was cataclysmic.

The ruins of the Impact Plastics facility at Riverview Industrial Park on Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Erwin, Tennessee, in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Helene.

The industrial park is just a couple hundred feet from the Nolichucky River, which swelled with a rush of water comparable to nearly twice what cascades over Niagara Falls. Only a parking lot and two roads separate Impact Plastics from the river.

Just a mile south of Impact Plastics is Unicoi County Hospital, the site of a dramatic helicopter rescue that same day of 54 staff and patients stranded on the roof as the river brook loose from its banks.

Erwin is one of dozens of East Tennessee towns submerged following the flooding that devastated the region after Hurricane Helene made landfall and turned north, unleashing historic levels of rain. There have been five confirmed deaths – three in Unicoi County – across East Tennessee through Monday, but federal, state and local officials expect that number to rise.

Impact Plastics employee: We couldn’t leave

Jacob Ingram has worked at Impact Plastics for nearly eight months as a mold changer. It's a role, he said, that keeps him on his feet the entire first shift.

As the waters rose outside, managers wouldn’t let employees leave, he said. Instead, they told people to move their cars away from the rising water. Ingram moved his two separate times because the water wouldn’t stop rising.

“They should’ve evacuated when we got the flash flood warnings, and when they saw the parking lot,” Ingram told the News Sentinel, Knox News. “When we moved our cars we should’ve evacuated then … we asked them if we should evacuate, and they told us not yet, it wasn’t bad enough.

“And by the time it was bad enough, it was too late unless you had a four-wheel-drive.”

The company confirmed six employees and a contractor are missing but denied allegations that management forced anyone to continue working as waters rose outside. Further, the statement said, while most employees left immediately, some remained on or near the premises. It reiterated management and assistants were the last to exit the building.

Search and rescue teams on the grounds at the Riverview Industrial Park on Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Erwin, Tennessee, in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
Desperate employees seek refuge on semitruck's flatbed

Ingram and 10 other employees were fighting their way through waist-deep water in the parking lot when a semitruck driver from PolyPipe USA, which operates next door, called them over and helped them get onto the back of his open-bed truck, packed full of the large yellow flexible gas pipes.

It provided a temporary respite.

Videos posted by Ingram on Facebook show dark brown, raging rapids running through the company’s parking lot, picking up vehicles that then bobbed up and down like toys in a bathtub.

In their panic, the group called 911 and were told rescuers would be there in 15-20 minutes.

But help was a long way away.

“We called the police station God knows how many times,” Ingram said. “For two or three hours we were on the back of the trailer … it was because the hospital was about to collapse, and I understand that, but they shouldn’t have told us someone was on the way (when they weren’t).”

As he waited, Ingram thought about his family, about his 2-year-old daughter and his fiancée. He called his dad and told him to tell them he loved them.

Search and rescue teams on the grounds at the Riverview Industrial Park on Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Erwin, Tennessee, in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
Into the water

Suddenly, a piece of debris hit the truck. The jolt knocked a woman into the rapids, Ingram said.

Soon after, a second piece of debris smashed into the truck and another woman fell into the water and was swept away, he said.

The truck was hit again, but this time the piece of debris was much bigger, the impact much harder, and the the truck flipped. Ingram crammed his hands under a plastic band around the yellow pipes.

It saved his life.

“I wedged my hands into it, and it took everything I had to hang on,” he said. “I seen them (the pipes) floating down river, so that’s what gave us the idea. We knew it was floating.”

Roughly half a mile from the factory, Ingram and four other employees came to rest atop a pile of debris.

They were safe, though they didn't know it at that moment.

After an hour or so passed, a rescue helicopter from the Tennessee National Guard plucked them from danger.
Some of the Impact Plastics employees did not survive

One of the employees who died, Bertha Mendoza, 56, fell off the truck and vanished into the flood, according to Ingram and a representative from Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition.

Mendoza was separated from her sister as the two tried to stay afloat, according to a GoFundMe page dedicated to her. Her body was found Sunday, the page says, but Mendoza has not yet been publicly identified by officials.

Another employee, Rosa Maria Andrade Reynoso, has been missing. Her husband, Francesco Guerro, told Knox News through a translator that officials didn’t ask families for any identifying features – clothing or tattoos. They didn’t even ask for pictures, he said. (Officials began asking for photos Monday, Sept. 30.)

Ingram told Knox News that Reynoso was one of the employees who climbed onto the flatbed with him.

Reynoso was in touch with her husband throughout the morning and sent videos showing water rising up to her ankles, Guerro said. In one of her last messages, she told him the water had gotten so high she wasn’t sure if she would be able to get out.

She told him to take care of the kids, he said.

He tried to get to his wife, but by the time he made near the factory, roads were closed. He tried unsuccessfully to get to the factory by several routes. At the time, there were helicopters circulating in Erwin to rescue those trapped atop Unicoi County Hospital. Every time he saw a helicopter, he hoped she would be on it.

“She never came, she never came,” he said.

Reporter Areena Arora, senior editor Sarah Riley and photographer Saul Young contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Tennessee plastics factory workers swept away by Helene floodwaters

Helene Floodwaters Swept 11 Tennessee Factory Workers Away. At Least 4 Remain Missing

Anna Lazarus Caplan
Wed, October 2, 2024 

Workers at Impact Plastics claim they were told to stay at the facility, as raging floodwaters surrounded the facility, which the CEO denied

George Walker IV/APAn aerial view of flood damage in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, in Erwin, Tenn.

At least four people remain missing and two are dead after they tried to evacuate from the rural Tennessee factory where they worked, as raging floodwaters from Hurricane Helene surrounded the facility, according to reports.

Employees at Impact Plastics claim they were told to stay at the factory in Erwin, Tenn. on Friday, Sept. 27, even as its parking lot became flooded and the power shut off, according to CBS affiliate WVLT.

“I didn’t hear anyone say ‘leave’ or nothing like that. I actually asked one of the higher ups,” employee Jacob Ingram told the station. “They told me ‘No, not yet.’ They had to ask someone before we were able to leave, even though it was already above the doors and the cars and everything else,” he claimed.

When employees were finally told to go home, at least 11 of them were forced to scramble to higher ground as water from the nearby Nolichucky River enveloped the surrounding roads, the Associated Press reported.

Related: Over 50 People Trapped on Tennessee Hospital Roof by Hurricane Helene Floodwaters Rescued

Ingram posted a series of videos on Facebook from his and his fellow co-workers’ attempts to flee the area.

The group of 11 employees clung to plastic pipes from a semi truck, per the Knoxville News Sentinel. When the truck tipped over, the workers were carried away by the surging water.

One woman, later identified as Bertha Mendoza, was pronounced dead, and Impact Plastics confirmed the death of another employee, per the newspaper. Five of the workers were later rescued, according to the AP.


Melissa Sue Gerrits/GettyHeavy rains from hurricane Helene caused record flooding and damage on September 28, 2024 in Asheville, North Carolina.

A representative with Impact Plastics did not immediately return PEOPLE’s request for additional details.

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In a statement obtained by WVLT, the company said it was “devastated by the tragic loss of great employees.”

“Those who are missing or deceased, and their families are in our thoughts and prayers,” Impact Plastics founder and CEO Gerald O’Connor said.

Related: Father of 4 Dies After Neighbor's Tree Falls on His Home During Hurricane Helene: 'A Friend to Everyone'

Addressing the company’s decision-making on Friday, O’Connor said that the "company continued to monitor weather conditions. When water began to cover the parking lot and the adjacent service road, and the plant lost power, employees were dismissed by management to return to their homes in time for them to escape the industrial park.

"At no time were employees told that they would be fired if they left the facility," he added. “For employees who were non-English speaking, bi-lingual employees were among the group of managers who delivered the message. While most employees left immediately, some remained on or near the premises for unknown reasons. Senior management and assistants remained to oversee employee departures, assess damage and preserve company records. They were the last to exit the building.”

Amid the chaotic scene and in the storm’s wake, those who worked at the plant are processing their grief.

“I lost six good friends. Co-workers,” Robbie Jarvis told NBC News. "We were family there. We all joked all day long. I spent more time with them than anybody else in my family.”


Helene's flooding swept away 11 workers at a Tennessee factory. Now the state is investigating

JONATHAN MATTISE and CEDAR ATTANASIO
Updated Wed, October 2, 2024 






In this image made from a video provided by NewsNation, people can be seen on the roof of the Unicoi County Hospital in Erwin, Tenn., on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (NewsNation via AP)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee state authorities said Wednesday they are investigating the company that owns a plastics factory where 11 workers were swept away by cataclysmic flooding unleashed by Hurricane Helene.

As the nearby Nolichucky River swelled from rainfall, employees in the Impact Plastics factory in Erwin, a small community in rural Tennessee, kept working. Several asserted that they weren’t allowed to leave in time to avoid the storm’s impact. It wasn’t until water flooded into the parking lot and the power went out that the plant shut down and sent workers home.

Several never made it.

The raging waters swept 11 people away, and only five were rescued. Two of them are confirmed dead and are part of a toll across six states that has surpassed 160. Four others in the factory are still missing since they were washed away Friday in Erwin, where dozens of people were also rescued off the roof of a hospital.

Tennessee Bureau of Investigation spokesperson Leslie Earhart said Wednesday that the agency is investigating allegations involving Impact Plastics at the direction of the local prosecutor.

District Attorney Steven R. Finney said in a statement that he asked the bureau to look into any potential criminal violations related to the “occurrences” on Friday.

“Impact Plastics has not been contacted by the TBI yet but will fully cooperate with their investigation,” said the company's spokesperson Tony Treadway. He said the company is preparing an internal review which it will release to the public.

Some workers managed to drive away from the plant, while others got caught on a clogged road where water rose high enough to sweep vehicles away. Videos show the brown floodwaters covering the nearby highway and lapping at the doors of Impact Plastics.

Jacob Ingram, a mold changer at the factory, filmed himself and four others waiting for rescue as bobbing vehicles floated by. He later posted the videos on Facebook with the caption, “Just wanna say im lucky to be alive.” Videos of the helicopter rescue were posted on social media later Saturday.

In one video, Ingram looks down at the camera, a green Tennessee National Guard helicopter hovering above him, hoisting one of the other survivors. In another, a soldier rigs the next evacuee in a harness.

Impact Plastics said in a statement Monday that it “continued to monitor weather conditions” Friday and that managers dismissed employees “when water began to cover the parking lot and the adjacent service road, and the plant lost power.”

In interviews with local news outlets, two of the workers who made it out of the facility disputed those claims. One told News 5 WCYB that employees were made to wait until it was “too late.” Another, Ingram, made a similar statement to the Knoxville News Sentinel.

“They should’ve evacuated when we got the flash flood warnings, and when they saw the parking lot,” Ingram said. “We asked them if we should evacuate, and they told us not yet, it wasn’t bad enough.”

Worker Robert Jarvis told News 5 WCYB that the company should have let them leave earlier.

Jarvis said he tried to drive away in his car, but the water on the main road got too high, and only off-road vehicles were finding ways out of the flood zone.

“The water was coming up,” he said. “A guy in a 4x4 came, picked a bunch of us up and saved our lives, or we’d have been dead, too.”

The 11 workers found temporary respite on the back of a truck driven by a passerby, but it soon tipped over after debris hit it, Ingram said.

Ingram said he survived by grabbing onto plastic pipes that were on the truck. He said he and four others floated for about half a mile (about 800 meters) before they found safety on a sturdy pile of debris.

“We are devastated by the tragic loss of great employees,” company founder Gerald O’Connor said in the statement Monday. “Those who are missing or deceased, and their families are in our thoughts and prayers.”

The two confirmed dead at the Tennessee plastics factory are Mexican citizens, said Lisa Sherman-Nikolaus, executive director at Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition. She said many of the victims’ families have started online fundraisers to cover funeral costs and other expenses.

Bertha Mendoza was with her sister when the flooding started, but they got separated, according to a eulogy on her GoFundMe page authored by her daughter-in-law, who declined an interview request.

“She was loved dearly by her family, community, her church family, and co-workers,” the eulogy read.

___

Attanasio reported from New York. AP journalists Rhonda Shafner and Beatrice Dupuy contributed from New York.