Tennessee plastics factory staff killed in Hurricane Helene reportedly told not to evacuate
WHY WAS IT OPERATING DURING A HURRICANE
One worker said Impact Plastics managers would not let employees leave, which company denies
Hurricane Helene death toll rises to 166 with hundreds more still missing
Sam Levine
Several employees at a plastics factory in eastern Tennessee were killed during Hurricane Helene or are missing, amid warnings that the storm’s current death toll of more than 130 is likely to rise substantially as subsiding floodwaters allow rescuers to search through the wreckage.
Impact Plastics confirmed there had been fatalities at its plant in Erwin but did not say how many people had been killed. The company said there were missing and deceased employees as well as a contractor.
Officials have said at least 130 people across five states in the south-eastern US have been killed as a result of Helene, which thrashed ashore in Florida’s Big Bend region late Thursday.
More than 150 dead after Hurricane Helene dumps over 40tn gallons of rain
Jacob Ingram, a mold changer at the company, told the Knoxville News Sentinel that as the flooding started, managers instructed employees to move their cars away from the rising water – but would not let them leave. “They should’ve evacuated when we got the flash flood warnings, and when they saw the parking lot,” he said to the newspaper. “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.”
Ingram told the Knoxville News Sentinel that he and 10 other employees later tried to leave by taking refuge on an open-bed truck. Debris hit the truck, made two people fall into the water and eventually caused the truck to flip.
Fernando Ruiz told NBC News he spoke with his mother as she worked while the rain fell. He said he urged her to leave – but she replied that managers weren’t telling them anything as the flooding worsened.
The company denied that managers had told employees not to leave.
“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,” it said in a statement. “At no time were employees told that they would be fired if they left the facility. For employees who were non-English speaking, bi-lingual employees were among the group of managers who delivered the message.”
The company also said: “While most employees left immediately, some remained on or near the premises for unknown reasons.”
The company’s founder, Gerald O’Connor, said in a statement: “We are devastated by the tragic loss of great employees. Those who are missing or deceased and their families are in our thoughts and prayers.”
One of the employees who died was 56-year-old Bertha Mendoza, according to the News Sentinel. She was separated from her sister while trying to stay afloat, said a GoFundMe set up by her family.
NBC News reported that several family members of workers had been posting on social media in search of family members and pressing authorities for help.
Trump visits hurricane-ravaged Georgia and makes false claims about Biden
The Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) said in a statement that it had seen people affected struggling to get help from authorities.
“TIRRC staff members who deployed to the area witnessed community members struggling to access interpretation services from local and state government agencies, as well as requests by agencies for identification and documentation from immigrant community families that hindered their ability to identify missing loved ones,” the group said in a statement.
The White House said on Tuesday that Joe Biden would take aerial tours on Wednesday over North Carolina and South Carolina to assess Helene-related destruction there. The president also planned to meet with first responders as well as state and local officials, according to the White House.
Helene floodwaters trapped Tennessee plastics plant employees, and some are among the missing and dead
Tavleen Tarrant and Suzanne Gamboa
Updated Wed, October 2, 2024
Floodwaters from Hurricane Helene trapped workers at an eastern Tennessee plastics factory, with several family members learning Monday that their loved ones didn't survive.
Some of the workers' relatives got frantic video phone calls as the flood swelled around Impact Plastics in Erwin, where rushing waters swept some workers away from the parking lot next to the Nolichucky River.
The families and friends had been posting desperate pleas on social media for help in finding their relatives. Some showed up at a news conference carrying photos of the missing and pressed authorities to locate them.
Slowly, their postings were updated to say that their loved ones, several of them Latino, had died.
According to reports on social media, the workers were trapped outside the building, which was surrounded by fast-moving flood waters that kept them from leaving.
Alexa Peterson, of Erwin, confirmed to NBC News that her father, Johnny Peterson, was among the dead. Based on social media, he appears to have been one of the workers. Peterson was seeking legal representation and declined to comment further.
In interviews with NBC affiliate WCYB of Bristol, family members said their loved ones had told them they weren’t advised what to do.
Fernando Ruiz, who was searching for his mother, told the station through an interpreter that she was still working during the rain and called him. He said he told her to leave but she told him managers weren’t telling her anything.
Authorities in Unicoi County didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Impact Plastics issued a news release expressing sympathy for employees who were missing or had died, and for a contractor, whose status they didn’t describe.
“We are devastated by the tragic loss of great employees,” said Gerald O’Connor, who, according to the release, founded the company in 1987.
“At no time were employees told that they would be fired if they left the facility. For employees who were non-English speaking, bilingual employees were among the group of managers who delivered the message,” the company stated.
Rainfall had been intense Friday morning, but it eased as the morning progressed, the company's release stated. Employees were dismissed, however, when water covered the parking lot and the adjacent road, and the plant lost power.
President Joe Biden has approved an emergency declaration for Tennessee.
Another woman identified as Guadalupe Hernandez Corona said she was looking for her sister, Monica Hernandez.
“She was saying they were inside of the factory,” Hernandez Corona told the station, “and they were on top of the trailer and saying goodbye and telling us to call 911 and pray for her.”
An immigration group that was working with some of the families called for better services for immigrants in times of disaster. In a news release, the group, Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, said its staff witnessed people unable to get interpretation services from local and state government agencies, and some immigrant family members being asked to provide identification, which “hindered their ability to find missing loved ones.”
Hurricane Helene has killed more than 120 people and left a trail of destruction since making landfall in Florida as a Category 4 storm on Thursday.
It erased entire communities, sent flooding rains into mountain towns in North Carolina and cut off some residents from food, water and power when it tore up roads out of their communities.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Helene Floodwaters Swept 11 Tennessee Factory Workers Away. At Least 4 Remain Missing
Anna Lazarus Caplan
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.”
Read the original article on People.
Sam Levine
THE GUARDIAN
Tue 1 Oct 2024
Several employees at a plastics factory in eastern Tennessee were killed during Hurricane Helene or are missing, amid warnings that the storm’s current death toll of more than 130 is likely to rise substantially as subsiding floodwaters allow rescuers to search through the wreckage.
Impact Plastics confirmed there had been fatalities at its plant in Erwin but did not say how many people had been killed. The company said there were missing and deceased employees as well as a contractor.
Officials have said at least 130 people across five states in the south-eastern US have been killed as a result of Helene, which thrashed ashore in Florida’s Big Bend region late Thursday.
More than 150 dead after Hurricane Helene dumps over 40tn gallons of rain
Jacob Ingram, a mold changer at the company, told the Knoxville News Sentinel that as the flooding started, managers instructed employees to move their cars away from the rising water – but would not let them leave. “They should’ve evacuated when we got the flash flood warnings, and when they saw the parking lot,” he said to the newspaper. “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.”
Ingram told the Knoxville News Sentinel that he and 10 other employees later tried to leave by taking refuge on an open-bed truck. Debris hit the truck, made two people fall into the water and eventually caused the truck to flip.
Fernando Ruiz told NBC News he spoke with his mother as she worked while the rain fell. He said he urged her to leave – but she replied that managers weren’t telling them anything as the flooding worsened.
The company denied that managers had told employees not to leave.
“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,” it said in a statement. “At no time were employees told that they would be fired if they left the facility. For employees who were non-English speaking, bi-lingual employees were among the group of managers who delivered the message.”
The company also said: “While most employees left immediately, some remained on or near the premises for unknown reasons.”
The company’s founder, Gerald O’Connor, said in a statement: “We are devastated by the tragic loss of great employees. Those who are missing or deceased and their families are in our thoughts and prayers.”
One of the employees who died was 56-year-old Bertha Mendoza, according to the News Sentinel. She was separated from her sister while trying to stay afloat, said a GoFundMe set up by her family.
NBC News reported that several family members of workers had been posting on social media in search of family members and pressing authorities for help.
Trump visits hurricane-ravaged Georgia and makes false claims about Biden
The Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) said in a statement that it had seen people affected struggling to get help from authorities.
“TIRRC staff members who deployed to the area witnessed community members struggling to access interpretation services from local and state government agencies, as well as requests by agencies for identification and documentation from immigrant community families that hindered their ability to identify missing loved ones,” the group said in a statement.
The White House said on Tuesday that Joe Biden would take aerial tours on Wednesday over North Carolina and South Carolina to assess Helene-related destruction there. The president also planned to meet with first responders as well as state and local officials, according to the White House.
Helene floodwaters trapped Tennessee plastics plant employees, and some are among the missing and dead
Tavleen Tarrant and Suzanne Gamboa
Updated Wed, October 2, 2024
Floodwaters from Hurricane Helene trapped workers at an eastern Tennessee plastics factory, with several family members learning Monday that their loved ones didn't survive.
Some of the workers' relatives got frantic video phone calls as the flood swelled around Impact Plastics in Erwin, where rushing waters swept some workers away from the parking lot next to the Nolichucky River.
The families and friends had been posting desperate pleas on social media for help in finding their relatives. Some showed up at a news conference carrying photos of the missing and pressed authorities to locate them.
Slowly, their postings were updated to say that their loved ones, several of them Latino, had died.
According to reports on social media, the workers were trapped outside the building, which was surrounded by fast-moving flood waters that kept them from leaving.
Alexa Peterson, of Erwin, confirmed to NBC News that her father, Johnny Peterson, was among the dead. Based on social media, he appears to have been one of the workers. Peterson was seeking legal representation and declined to comment further.
In interviews with NBC affiliate WCYB of Bristol, family members said their loved ones had told them they weren’t advised what to do.
Fernando Ruiz, who was searching for his mother, told the station through an interpreter that she was still working during the rain and called him. He said he told her to leave but she told him managers weren’t telling her anything.
Authorities in Unicoi County didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Impact Plastics issued a news release expressing sympathy for employees who were missing or had died, and for a contractor, whose status they didn’t describe.
“We are devastated by the tragic loss of great employees,” said Gerald O’Connor, who, according to the release, founded the company in 1987.
“At no time were employees told that they would be fired if they left the facility. For employees who were non-English speaking, bilingual employees were among the group of managers who delivered the message,” the company stated.
Rainfall had been intense Friday morning, but it eased as the morning progressed, the company's release stated. Employees were dismissed, however, when water covered the parking lot and the adjacent road, and the plant lost power.
President Joe Biden has approved an emergency declaration for Tennessee.
Another woman identified as Guadalupe Hernandez Corona said she was looking for her sister, Monica Hernandez.
“She was saying they were inside of the factory,” Hernandez Corona told the station, “and they were on top of the trailer and saying goodbye and telling us to call 911 and pray for her.”
An immigration group that was working with some of the families called for better services for immigrants in times of disaster. In a news release, the group, Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, said its staff witnessed people unable to get interpretation services from local and state government agencies, and some immigrant family members being asked to provide identification, which “hindered their ability to find missing loved ones.”
Hurricane Helene has killed more than 120 people and left a trail of destruction since making landfall in Florida as a Category 4 storm on Thursday.
It erased entire communities, sent flooding rains into mountain towns in North Carolina and cut off some residents from food, water and power when it tore up roads out of their communities.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Helene Floodwaters Swept 11 Tennessee Factory Workers Away. At Least 4 Remain Missing
Anna Lazarus Caplan
PEOPLE
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
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.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
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.”
Read the original article on People.
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