Tennessee is currently examining a plastics manufacturing facility following the events of Helene, which resulted in the displacement of its staff. Here's the information we've gathered.
Only five employees from Impact Plastics' facility in Erwin were rescued. Four other workers are still missing, and two have been confirmed dead, as reported by The Associated Press. The community is still struggling with shortages of food, water, electricity, and communication services due to Helene's powerful winds and floods, which caused over 500 miles of devastation from Florida to the Southern Appalachians last week.
Two state investigations are underway as employees, the families of the victims, and company owners provide conflicting accounts of the situation before the floodwaters overwhelmed the area.
Family members of the deceased are angry because they claim employees were forced to work during dangerous weather conditions and were not allowed to leave as warnings of heavy rainfall in the flood-prone area were distributed.
Impact Plastics staunchly denies these allegations, stating on Thursday that the accusations are false and no employee was barred from leaving.
Here's what we know about the tragedy and the ongoing state investigations:
Discrepancies between company and employee storm warnings
At least two employees from Impact Plastics asserted that they were told to continue working on Friday, just over a mile from a hospital where 50 people had to be rescued from the roof due to extreme floodwaters.
In contrast, Impact Plastics informed CNN that a preliminary analysis of the September 27 flooding found that all employees had left the plant less than an hour after the power went out and public warnings were transmitted to cell phones.
Management did not prevent any employee from leaving and made no threats of termination, the company declared in a statement on Thursday.
Elías Ibarra Mendoza, a 56-year-old grandmother, is one of the two employees who tragically passed away. Her family's attorney, Greg Coleman, told CNN's "The Source with Kaitlin Collins" on Thursday that the company's assertion that management didn't stop anyone from leaving doesn't align with what he's been told by other sources.
"There's an issue with that narrative because that's not what several people are reporting or agreeing with. In fact, the exact opposite is true," Coleman said. "We've already spoken to several individuals who, let's just put it this way, disagree with what the company is stating."
The company's senior management was the last to depart, approximately 45 minutes after the factory shut down and other employees had been dismissed, according to the statement.
An employee who managed to escape the building safely disclosed to WCYB that he was denied permission to leave work when he saw a flooded parking lot. Another employee, Jacob Ingram, recounted to CNN affiliate WVLT that they were told, "Not yet" when they requested to leave.
Cars and pickup trucks were submerged in muddy, swift-moving water as powerful winds howled in the background, according to a video taken by Ingram, who believed that lives could have been saved if people had left earlier. In one video, more than half of one company building was swallowed by the floodwaters.
Impact Plastics claimed that their parking lot is in a low-lying area and is prone to water accumulation, but their analysis showed that the water in the lot was about 6 inches deep around the time people were sent home. The "front of the plant appears to have been passable," the company stated.
Numerous flood and storm alerts issued before shift commencement
When the first shift started at 7 a.m. CT last Friday at Impact Plastics, the company claimed there were no flooding warnings or alerts. Water began to accumulate in the parking lot around 10:35 a.m., the plant's power was lost at 10:39 a.m., and public warnings were disseminated to cell phones shortly thereafter, the company stated.
This contradicts the multiple flood and storm alerts, along with public warnings from the National Weather Service, issued for the Erwin plastics plant region prior to the beginning of the final shift.
A flood watch, which included warnings regarding Helene's rain, was issued for the area on Tuesday. A flood warning from the National Weather Service was issued at 3:59 p.m. local time on Thursday. At 8:14 a.m. local time that Friday, a flash flood warning was issued for Unicoi County, where the factory is located, according to the National Weather Service. By 10:51 a.m., the flash flood warning in the county was upgraded to a flash flood emergency.
When CNN contacted Impact Plastics about this inconsistency, they declined to comment, stating that they had "no additional information as the company cooperates with other reviews."
"Employees were instructed to leave the plant property within minutes of the power outage and certainly no later than 10:50 AM," the company conveyed, adding that they communicated this instruction in both English and Spanish. Senior management, including the company's founder, president, and CEO Gerald O'Connor, attempted to move the company's server and important documents, and were the last to depart around 11:35 a.m., according to the statement.
O'Connor ordered a review the day following the flooding, he explained in a Thursday video statement, noting that the company released the statement due to "death threats," but did not provide any further information on the alleged threats.
Five individuals who were also in the truck during the rollover incident managed to reach safety and were subsequently evacuated, as acknowledged by the facility. Top-tier administration invoked emergency services for assistance, and a National Guard helicopter successfully extracted the five personnel, the corporation disclosed in a statement.
According to occupational safety regulations in Tennessee, employers have eight hours to document a workplace fatality, TOSHA announced in a press release on Wednesday.
As of Wednesday evening, TOSHA and the state investigative unit had yet to obtain a fatal incident report from Impact Plastics. While the company's chief executive claims no fatalities occurred on its property, it remains uncertain if any such incidents took place. The preliminary report from the company also asserts that, to their knowledge, no individuals were trapped within the plant or at the premises.
CNN has reached out to the Unicoi Emergency Management Agency for comment but has yet to receive a response.
‘We had one entrance, one exit,’ a worker reminisced
The Mendoza family is devastated as they come to terms with Bertha's passing, her son Guillermo Mendoza shared with CNN on Thursday, as he recalled Bertha's consistent prioritization of her grandchildren and children's safety.
The family celebrated Bertha's 56th birthday only last month. Now, they are organizing a funeral they never anticipated, as per a GoFundMe campaign set up to cover her funeral expenses.
Effectively, Employee Monica Hernandez also succumbed to the floodwaters, her loved ones confirmed.
“She always had a cheerful disposition,” her niece Elizabeth Ramirez said to Univision. “She was always very joyful. You couldn’t shake that smile off her face.”
Another Impact Plastics employee, Robert Jarvis, managed to escape unharmed after securing assistance from a driver operating a four-wheeler, who picked him up along with others and thus saved his life.
Jarvis reported to work on Friday morning, despite the area being ravaged by Helene's fury, when the factory's power supply was cut, he revealed to the station. Shortly after, another colleague alerted him to a flooded parking lot, prompting him to relocate his vehicle to higher ground – despite the lot being completely submerged, according to his account.
“We had one entrance, one exit,” Jarvis stated. “And when they informed us that it was safe to depart, the only exit was obstructed, so we were trapped in traffic on that road, waiting to determine our next steps.”
Now, Jarvis raises a single question for Impact Plastics: “Why did you require us to report to work that day? Why? We shouldn't have come in. We shouldn't have been present. None of us should have been there.”
CNN's Emma Tucker, Eric Zerkel, and Mary Gilbert contributed to this report.
The family members of the deceased employees are upset because they believe their loved ones were forced to work during dangerous weather conditions and were not allowed to leave, despite warnings of heavy rainfall in the flood-prone area.
Despite Impact Plastics' denial, several employees have claimed that they were told to continue working, even as dangerous flooding was taking place nearby.
