https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/01/tennessee-plastics-factory-hurricaneTennessee plastics factory staff killed in Hurricane Helene reportedly told not to evacuate
One worker said Impact Plastics managers would not let employees leave, which company denies
Several employees at a plastics factory in eastern Tennessee were killed during Hurricane Helene or are missing, amid warnings that the storm’s current death toll of more than 130 is likely to rise substantially as subsiding floodwaters allow rescuers to search through the wreckage.
Impact Plastics confirmed there had been fatalities at its plant in Erwin but did not say how many people had been killed. The company said there were missing and deceased employees as well as a contractor.
Officials have said at least 130 people across five states in the south-eastern US have been killed as a result of Helene, which thrashed ashore in Florida’s Big Bend region late Thursday.
Jacob Ingram, a mold changer at the company, told the Knoxville News Sentinel that as the flooding started, managers instructed employees to move their cars away from the rising water – but would not let them leave. “They should’ve evacuated when we got the flash flood warnings, and when they saw the parking lot,” he said to the newspaper. “When we moved our cars, we should’ve evacuated then … 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 a four-wheel drive.”
Ingram told the Knoxville News Sentinel that he and 10 other employees later tried to leave by taking refuge on an open-bed truck. Debris hit the truck, made two people fall into the water and eventually caused the truck to flip.
Fernando Ruiz told NBC News he spoke with his mother as she worked while the rain fell. He said he urged her to leave – but she replied that managers weren’t telling them anything as the flooding worsened.
