Hurricane Helene kills multiple workers at Tennessee plastics factory ‘after bosses warned them not to evacuate’
Several employees at a plastics factory in Tennessee died after being told by their bosses not to evacuate during Hurricane Helene, according to a worker.
Impact Plastics in Erwin, Tennessee confirmed there were fatalities at its factory following Friday’s extreme weather, but did not reveal how many people died.
Two people are said to have died, and five are still missing.
Employee Bertha Mendoza, 56, has since been confirmed as one of those killed in the floods, according to a fundraising page. Alexa Peterson told it NBC News that her father Johnny was among those who had died. She told the outlet she was seeking legal assistance.
Jacob Ingram, a die changer at the company, told the Knoxville News Sentinel that when the flooding started, managers told employees to move their cars but wouldn’t let them leave.
Ingram said, “They should have evacuated when we got the flash flood warnings and when they saw the parking lot. When we moved our cars, we should have evacuated then.”
This appears now that the death toll from the brutal hurricane that swept across the southeast last week has exceeded 150 people.
Bertha Mendoza, a 56-year-old mother of two, died after flooding from Hurricane Bertha hit Impact Plastics in Erwin, Tennessee
When the flooding started, managers told employees to move their cars but wouldn’t let them leave, an employee said
He continued, “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 four-wheel drive.”
The outlet reported that a group of workers were clinging to spools of flexible tubing on the back of a truck, waiting for help.
The truck overturned and at least seven people were subsequently swept away by the water.
Founder and CEO Gerald O’Connor said: ‘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.”
The company also claimed that at no point were employees told they would be fired if they left the premises.
Fernando Ruiz was left searching for his mother Lidia Verdugo after speaking to her while she was at work when the rain fell.
Some of the dead have been identified as Monica Hernandez, left, who is missing, and Fernando Ruiz’s mother Lidia Verdugo, right
Francisco Javier Guerrero’s wife Rosa Maria Andrade Reynoso also remains missing
The company also claimed that at no point were employees told they would be fired if they left the premises
According to Ruiz, he told her to leave, but she responded that the plant’s managers did not tell them because the water level continued to rise.
Guadalupe Hernández told it WSMV her sister Monica Hernández had gone to work on Friday and received a call from her saying goodbye, in case she was not rescued.
Nothing has been heard from her since.
Francisco Javier Guerrero’s wife Rosa Maria Andrade Reynoso was also missing in the waters.
He told it WBIR: ‘She said goodbye to me and took care of the children. We feel devastated by what is happening, especially as we have no answers if she is one of the people who have been located.”
The Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) said in a statement that they had seen people struggling to get help from authorities.
They said: ‘TIRRC staff deployed to the area witnessed community members struggling to access interpretation services from local and national government agencies, as well as requests from agencies for identification and documentation of immigrant community families who hindered their ability to identify missing loved ones. .’
Flood damage caused by Hurricane Helene can be seen here Saturday at a hospital in Erwin
Images shared by Ingram on his social media show dark brown muddy water flowing through the business’ parking lot.
You see large pick-up trucks bobbing up and down in the fast-flowing water.
One of the hardest hit areas is the city of Asheville in North Carolina, which is located in a valley and where about 50 people have died so far.
President Joe Biden was expected to map the devastation in the region on Wednesday.
Rescue workers are still continuing their efforts to connect with hundreds of people cut off by washed-out roads and broken communications lines.
Images of the destruction caused by the hurricane reveal a wasteland of splintered homes, crushed cargo containers, mud-covered highways and collapsed communications lines.
Damage estimates ranged from $15 billion to more than $100 billion, insurers and forecasters said this weekend, as water systems, communications and critical transportation routes were hit.
Property damage and lost economic output will become more apparent as officials assess the destruction.
At a news conference Tuesday, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said, “Communities have been wiped off the map.”