Tennessee factory claims its employees had ample time to evacuate during Helene's flood, but relatives of the individuals who were tragically swept away express differing opinions.
"Ibarra Mendoza shared with CNN affiliate Univision that Bertha Mendoza, before getting swept away by Hurricane Helene's floodwaters, said she loved her kids and wouldn't be reachable due to a damp phone. After that, he didn't hear from her again.
The 56-year-old grandmother was among the 11 workers at a Tennessee plastics plant who lost their lives in the disaster. Only five could be saved. The Associated Press reported that four employees from Impact Plastics in Erwin are still missing, and two have been confirmed dead, including Mendoza.
The families of the victims and Impact Plastics employees are demanding explanations why, they claim, employees were forced to work during harsh weather conditions, and some were told they couldn't leave as warnings of heavy rainfall in the flood-prone area were issued. Impact Plastics strongly denies these accusations, asserting that no employee was prevented from leaving.
Two investigations are now being conducted into the tragedy as diverse parties share varying accounts of what transpired just before the floodwaters overwhelmed the area.
The families of the missing wait anxiously for any scrap of information about their loved ones' whereabouts, as many communities still struggle with food, water, power, and communication shortages. Helene's powerful winds and floods inflicted over 500 miles of devastation from Florida to the Southern Appalachians.
Two Impact Plastics workers declared they were told to continue working, only about a mile from a hospital where over 50 people required rescue from the roof due to the high floodwaters. While the company denies these claims, it affirmed that all employees were informed to leave the facility at least 45 minutes before the flood inundated the industrial park, according to a Thursday night statement.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration are currently probing the workplace fatalities.
At least 200 people have lost their lives due to Hurricane Helene's effects across six states, a number officials fear could increase as rescue operations and aid for affected regions progress one week post-landfall.
Widespread disagreement over the warnings given
A preliminary analysis of the September 27 flooding incident indicated that all staff had left the plant less than an hour after the facility lost power and cell phone alerts were broadcast, according to Impact Plastics. Supervisors didn't prohibit employees from leaving and didn't threaten anyone with dismissal, the company stated.
Impact Plastics' claims that its management didn't prevent anyone from leaving don't align with what Mendoza family attorney Greg Coleman has been told by others, he said to CNN's "The Source with Kaitlin Collins" on Thursday.
"The issue with that narrative is that it's not what most people are saying or agreeing with. In fact, the exact opposite is the case," Coleman said. "We've already spoken to several who, to put it mildly, are at odds with what the company is saying."
Senior management was the last to depart about 45 minutes after the plant closed and other employees had been dismissed, the company stated.
‘The facts show that employees were given the chance to leave the plant at least 45 minutes before the colossal force of the flood struck the industrial park,’ said Gerald O’Connor, founding father, president, and CEO of Impact Plastics, in a video statement attached to the company's Thursday statement. ‘To our knowledge, no one perished while on company property.’
A worker who managed to escape said he asked for permission to leave when he observed a flooded parking lot, but was denied. Another employee, Jacob Ingram, told CNN affiliate WVLT that he was instructed, ‘not yet,’ when he asked to leave.
Cars and pickup trucks were submerged in brown, muddy, swift-moving water as howling winds blasted in the background, as seen in a video taken by Ingram, who told WVLT that lives might have been saved if people had left earlier. In one video, more than half of one business building was swallowed by the floodwaters.
Impact Plastics argued that its parking lot is in a low-lying area prone to water accumulation, but its analysis revealed water in the lot to be approximately 6 inches deep around the time employees were dismissed. ‘The front of the plant appears to have been traversable,’ the company stated.
‘Subsequent analysis of recorded video footage and photographs has identified both current and absent employees who left Impact Plastics' property and remained on South Industrial Drive for approximately 45 minutes after the plant's closure,’ the preliminary review concluded. ‘This group has since been either rescued or reported as missing or deceased.’
When the workers' initial shift at the company began at 7 a.m. CT on September 27, there was no flooding alert or warning, Impact Plastics insisted. Water began to accumulate in the parking lot around 10:35 a.m., the electricity went out at 10:39 a.m., and warnings were broadcast to cell phones around a minute later, according to the company.
However, multiple flood and storm warnings, along with cell phone alerts from the National Weather Service, were issued for the area including the Tennessee plastics plant prior to the start of the last shift. A flood watch, which included warnings of Helene's rain, was issued for the area on Tuesday and a flash flood warning was issued at 9:14 a.m. local time that Friday morning."
"Get to higher ground ASAP. Act swiftly to safeguard your life," the warning for a potential flood urged.
"Workers were ordered to vacate the facility after a power outage and no later than 10:50 AM, as announced in both English and Spanish by the company," it was stated. Senior officials, including O’Connor, made efforts to move the server and vital documents, and were the last to leave around 11:35 a.m., according to the company.
O’Connor demanded an investigation the day after the flood in his statement, he mentioned, stating that the company released the statement due to "death threats," but no further details were given about the threats.
Employers have 8 hours to report a workplace death, TOSHA stated according to Tennessee law in a news release on Wednesday. The agency, in collaboration with TBI, was yet to receive a fatality report from Impact Plastics by Wednesday evening. It was not immediately clear if any workplace deaths had occurred, as the company's founder confirmed that no one had died on company property. The initial report from the company also stated, to its knowledge, no one was trapped inside the plant or on the premises.
CNN reached out to Unicoi Emergency Management Agency for comment but has not received a response yet.
"In such times, words seem inadequate to express the mourning we all feel," the company said in its preliminary review. "The recent flood has damaged our plant and, more tragically, claimed the lives of some of our valued colleagues and friends. Our thoughts are with their families and loved ones."
"We shouldn't have been there"
Impact Plastics noted last Thursday that the weather was monitored, and although the rainfall had been heavy the previous night, it had subsided by morning, according to a statement given to CNN affiliate WCYB.
However, it wasn't until the factory parking lot and adjacent service road were covered in water, and the plant lost power, that employees, some of whom were non-English speaking, were asked to return home by bilingual managers, Impact Plastics stated.
"Most employees left promptly, but some remained on or near the premises for unknown reasons," the company said.
Employee Robert Jarvis reported to work on Friday despite the area being flooded, as the power went out at the factory. He then received a text informing him of the flooded parking lot, so he moved his car to higher ground, he said.
Jarvis managed to escape safely with the assistance of a man driving a four-wheeler who picked up him and others, saving his life, he told WCYB.
"We had one entrance and one exit," Jarvis said. "And as they told us we could leave, the one exit was blocked, so we were stuck in traffic on that road, unsure of what to do."
A truck owned by a neighboring company and driven by its employee picked up some factory employees, according to Impact Plastics, but the rising water caused the truck to tip over, leaving five employees and a contractor missing, the company stated.
Five other individuals who were on the truck when it tipped over managed to escape and were later evacuated, according to the factory. Senior management called for emergency aid, and a National Guard helicopter rescued the five employees, the company stated.
"It hurts knowing that they didn't make it, and I did," Jarvis said, fighting back tears.
Now Jarvis has only one question for Impact Plastics: "Why did you make us work that day? Why? We shouldn't have worked. We shouldn't have been there. None of us should have been there."
"It breaks my heart for those who lost their lives," Jarvis said. "I worked with them every day, and we were like family, sharing stories, jokes. And it breaks my heart to see that they died, all because of greed, I believe."
CNN’s Gustavo Valdes, Eric Zerkel and CNN Meteorologist Mary Gilbert contributed to this report.
The families of the Impact Plastics employees, including the Mendoza family, are urging for explanations about why they were allegedly forced to work during harsh weather conditions. Despite Impact Plastics' denial, several employees have claimed they were told to continue working despite warnings of heavy rainfall and flood-prone conditions.
The controversy over the safety measures during the flooding incident has led to two investigations by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The families are anxiously waiting for any information about their loved ones, as the tragic events continue to affect many communities.
