A group of migrant workers have been accused of looting property in a flooded part of Tennessee after Storm Helene ripped through the southern state.
Washington County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested all eight men on Saturday, according to Sheriff Keith Sexton.
Police say the men looted buildings in one of the province’s flood zones.
Jesus Leodan Garcia-Peneda, 51, Josue Berardo Ortis-Valdez, 30, and Ersy Leonel Ortis-Valdez, 33, were all charged with burglary.
The other five – Albin Nahun Vega-Rapalo, 24, David Bairon Rapalo-Rapalo, 37, Kevin Noe Martinez-Lopez, 25, Marvin Hernandez-Martinez, 43, and Dayln Gabriel Guillen Guillen, 37 – were charged with aggravated burglary for allegedly broke into occupied buildings.
Jesus Leodan Garcia-Peneda, left, and Josue Berardo Ortiz-Valdez, right
Ersy Leonel Ortiz-Valdez, left, and Albin Nahun Vega-Rapalo, right
David Bairon Rapalo-Rapalo, left, and Kevin Noe Martinez-Lopez, right
Marvin Hernandez-Martinez, left, and Dayln Gabriel Gullien Gullien, right
All eight men are migrant workers legally resident in the US on work visas, the sheriff’s office confirmed to The Sheriff New York Post on Monday.
The men were each held in jail on $20,000 bail and were scheduled to appear in court on Monday.
It is not yet known whether the looting took place in homes or businesses.
Tennessee was among several states hit hard by Helene, which dumped trillions of gallons of water across the South and Midwest.
One of the most dramatic scenes took place at Unicoi County Hospital, where the flooding Nolichucky River forced more than fifty patients and caregivers to take refuge on the roof.
Eventually everyone was rescued, with a helicopter landing on the roof and boats arriving to take away some patients.
Pictured: Nolichucky Dam in East Tennessee. The dam burst on September 27 with 30,000 cubic feet of water per second. Based on that figure, the amount of water in an Olympic swimming pool flowed through the small dam every three seconds.
People are seen on the roof of Unicoi County Hospital in Erwin, Tennessee
A man in Tennessee posted a terrifying firsthand image of what it was like on the ground when the Nolichucky River burst past the dam
A man in Tennessee posted a terrifying firsthand image of what it was like on the ground when the Nolichucky River burst past the dam.
Jeffrey Fuller live-streamed the hurricane ripping through his property on Facebook.
The video showed waist-deep water rushing through the house as Fuller shouted above the rushing current that the storm was “coming quickly… we’re going to the attic.”
Helene, which made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region as a Category 4 hurricane, may be gone, but the devastation it caused will be long-lasting.
So far, 128 people have been killed in six states, CNN reports.
Power outages are most common in the Carolinas and Georgia, where nearly 1.5 million people remain without electricity.