Impact Plastics: Tennessee investigates the factory after Helene swept away her workers

CNN
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The families of the 11 Tennessee plastics factory workers swept away by Hurricane Helene’s deadly floods are demanding answers from the company after its officials claimed no flood warnings or warnings were issued before the workers began their shifts, according to the report Contradicts official weather reports.

Only five employees at the Impact Plastics plant in Erwin were rescued. Four people who worked at the plant are still missing and two have been confirmed dead, The Associated Press reported. Communities are still suffering from a lack of food, water, electricity and communications after Helene’s strong winds and severe flooding last week caused deadly destruction across 500 miles from Florida to the southern Appalachians.

Two government investigations into the tragedy are underway as employees, victims’ families and business owners provide differing accounts of the hour before the area was flooded.

Victims’ families are outraged because they say staff were forced to work in extreme weather conditions and some were told they could not leave as warnings came of heavy rain in the flood-prone area.

Impact Plastics has strenuously denied those claims, saying late Thursday that the allegations were false and that no employee had been prevented from leaving the company.

Here’s what we know about the tragedy and the government investigation:

At least two workers at Impact Plastics said they were ordered to continue working last Friday, just over a mile from a hospital where more than 50 people had to be rescued from the roof because of high flooding that same day.

Meanwhile, Impact Plastics told CNN that a preliminary review of the September 27 flooding event found that all employees had left the plant less than an hour after the facility lost power and public alerts were sent to cellphones.

The supervisors “did not prohibit their employees from leaving” and “did not threaten anyone with dismissal from employment,” the company said in a statement Thursday.

Elías Ibarra Mendoza, a 56-year-old grandmother, is one of the two employees who died. Greg Coleman, her family’s attorney, told CNN’s “The Source with Kaitlin Collins” on Thursday that the company’s claims that its management did not prevent anyone from leaving the company are inconsistent with what he is hearing from others has.

“The problem with this narrative is that this is not what many people say or disagree with. In fact, the exact opposite is true,” Coleman said. “We have already spoken to several who are, shall we say, against the company’s statements.”

About 45 minutes after the plant was closed and all other employees were laid off, management was the last to leave the company, the company said.

An employee who made it out of the building safely told WCYB that when he asked if he could leave work after seeing a flooded parking lot, he was told no. Another employee, Jacob Ingram, told CNN affiliate WVLT that he was told, “No, not yet” when he asked to leave.

Sedans and pickup trucks were submerged in the brown, murky, fast-moving water while strong winds raged in the background, as seen in a video from Ingram, who told WVLT he believes lives could have been saved if people would have left earlier. In a video, more than half of a company building was swallowed by floodwaters.

Impact Plastics stated that the parking lot is in a low-lying area and is prone to water accumulation. However, their review found that the water in the parking lot was approximately 6 inches deep at the time the employees were fired. The “front of the facility appeared to be passable,” the company said.

Several flood and severe weather warnings were issued before the deadly shift began

When the first shift at the Impact Plastics factory began at 7 a.m. CT last Friday, the company claimed there was no flood warning or warning. According to the company, water began collecting in the parking lot around 10:35 a.m., power went out at the power plant at 10:39 a.m. and public alerts were sent to cell phones about a minute later.

This contradicts the numerous flood and storm warnings and public alerts issued by the National Weather Service before workers began their final shift for the area, including the Erwin Plastics Plant.

A flood warning was issued for the area on Tuesday, which also included warnings of Helene’s rain, and a National Weather Service flood warning was issued at 3:59 p.m. local time on Thursday.

According to the National Weather Service, a flash flood warning was issued for Unicoi County, where the factory is located, at 8:14 a.m. local time this Friday. At 10:51 a.m., the county’s flash flood warning was upgraded to a flash flood emergency.

When CNN asked Impact Plastics about the discrepancy, they declined to comment, saying they had “no additional information as the company cooperates with other reviews.”

“Employees were instructed to leave the factory premises within minutes of the power outage and in any event no later than 10:50 a.m.,” which was communicated in both English and Spanish, the company said. Senior management, including founder, president and CEO Gerald O’Connor, walked through the facility to try to relocate the company’s server and important documents and were the last to leave the building around 11:35 a.m they said.

O’Connor ordered a review the day after the flood, he said in a video statement Thursday, noting that he and the company released the statement because of “death threats” but gave no further details about the alleged threats.

A truck owned by a neighboring company and driven by an employee picked up some factory employees, according to Impact Plastics, but rising water overturned the truck and “five employees and a contractor aboard the truck were missing,” the statement said of the company.

Five other people who were also on the truck when it overturned were able to get to safety and later evacuate, the factory said. Senior management called emergency responders for help and a National Guard helicopter flew the five employees safely, the company said in a statement.

Employers have eight hours to report a workplace death, TOSHA said in a news release Wednesday, citing Tennessee law.

The agency, which works with the State Bureau of Investigation, had not yet received a death report from Impact Plastics as of Wednesday evening. It was not immediately clear whether there were any workplace deaths, as the company’s founder said no one died on the company’s premises. The company’s preliminary report also said that, to its knowledge, no one was trapped in the facility or on the site.

CNN reached out to the Unicoi Emergency Management Agency for comment but did not receive a response.

The Mendoza family is heartbroken over the loss of Bertha, her son Guillermo Mendoza told CNN on Thursday, describing how his mother always prioritized the safety of her grandchildren and children.

The family had just celebrated Mendoza’s 56th birthday last month. According to a GoFundMe campaign, they are now planning the funeral she never expected to have to cover her funeral costs.

Employee Monica Hernandez also died in the floods, her family said.

“She always had a smile on her face,” her niece Elizabeth Ramirez told Univision. “She was always very happy. You couldn’t wipe that smile off her face.”

Another Impact Plastics employee, Robert Jarvis, told CNN affiliate WCYB that he managed to escape safely with the help of a man driving an SUV who picked him up and others, essentially saving his life.

Jarvis reported to work Friday morning even though the area had been inundated by Helene’s wrath when the factory lost power, he told the station. Shortly after, another employee texted him and told him the parking lot was flooded, so he wanted to move his car to higher ground – there was no dry space in the parking lot, he said.

“We had a way in and a way out,” Jarvis said. “And when they told us we could leave, the only way out was closed, so we were stuck in traffic on that road waiting to see what we were going to do.”

Now Jarvis only has one question for Impact Plastics: “Why did you let us work that day?” Why? We shouldn’t have worked. We shouldn’t have been there. None of us should have been there.”