An employee at a Tennessee factory where 11 workers were swept away and at least two died in Hurricane Helen’s flood waters has revealed that. independent person The company claimed it had prioritized “profits over lives” by failing to evacuate its employees in time despite the danger.
Elwin Impact Plastics is being investigated by the state over a fatal accident after the plant was surrounded by water when Helen dumped more than 10 inches of rain on the region.
Last Friday started like any other day at work for Robert Jarvis, 47. He arrived from his home in Johnson City around 6:20 a.m. and spent the day chatting with colleagues.
As Helen moved through the area, employees received a phone notification from the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency around 10 a.m. directing them to evacuate.
Around 10:40 a.m., the power went out at the Impact Plastics building, and Jarvis received a text message from a co-worker informing him that the plant’s parking lot had flooded.
Mr Jarvis said he was asked by a colleague to move his car to higher ground and as he did so he encountered a member of senior management.
“I said… can I leave?” She said “No.” until I speak [another member of management] First of all,” Jarvis said. independent person.
After 10 minutes, management told employees to leave work, but by then the water level was so high that they couldn’t go anywhere.
“It was too late. I couldn’t get out,” Jarvis said. A video he shared showed the parking lot filling with water.
As Jarvis pulled his GMC truck out of the parking lot, he saw a car floating in the middle of the road. He said he began to panic, but an employee of a nearby business who was on a tractor offered to help. Jarvis followed him to the end of a nearby dirt road, then onto a boardwalk. The man cut the fence so the car could escape.
“But by the time I got there, the water was flowing so fast that my car was washed away,” Jarvis said.
Another man in a Dodge pickup truck came to his aid and Jarvis was able to escape from the flooded vehicle. “They saved my life,” he said.
Some were not so lucky. Approximately 11 Impact Plastics employees were swept away by floodwaters after the nearby Nolichucky River burst its banks. Two people, Bertha Mendoza and Monica Hernandez, were confirmed dead.
“Those people lost their lives for no reason,” Jarvis said.. “They’re putting profit over our lives. That makes me angry.”
Jacob Ingram said he was swept away. Trapped in the bed of a semi-truck. He was at the scene for a few hours as the truck hit the water and Mendoza and Hernandez were hit. Ingram said his truck hit debris and overturned, but he was able to keep riding after his hand got caught in a plastic band.
“I pushed my hand into it and it took all I had to hold on,” he said. “We saw them (pipes) floating in the river, so that gave us the idea. We knew it was floating.”
An hour after he was adrift in the river, a Tennessee National Guard rescue helicopter arrived to rescue Ingram.
At least three factory workers remain missingAccording to Knox News.
independent person has contacted Impact Plastics for comment regarding the employee’s allegations.
Jarvis recalled that his missing colleague, Rosa Maria Andrade Reynoso, was smiling at him before the flood began. “Every time I close my eyes, I see it now,” he said.
Other workers have also accused company management of not allowing them to resign.
“We all sat down with our supervisors and said, ‘Look, we don’t need to be here,'” Zinnia Adkins said. WJHL.
“Our phone alerts were telling us we needed to flee the area, and they didn’t say anything about it. And the supervisors didn’t tell us we could go. did.”
Ingram told Knox News on Tuesday. Employees should have evacuated sooner.. “They should have evacuated when the flash flood warning went out and when they saw the parking lot,” he says.
This was revealed by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. independent person On Wednesday, at the request of the region’s chief prosecutor, 1st Judicial District Attorney General Stephen Finney, his agents announced they were “investigating allegations involving Impact Plastics.”
The Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which also began the investigation, said companies have eight hours to report workplace fatalities, but as of Wednesday evening it had not received any reports of fatalities from Impact Plastics. said.
Impact Plastics released a statement Monday expressing its condolences to the employees who lost their lives.
“We are devastated by the tragic loss of a great employee,” Impact Plastics founder Gerald O’Connor said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the missing and deceased and their families.”
The company is Employees fired ‘in time to escape from industrial park’ when the parking lot began to fill with water and the factory lost power.
“Employees were never told that they would be fired if they left the facility. For non-English speaking employees, bilingual employees were among the group of managers who conveyed the message.” said the company. “Most employees left immediately, but some remained on or near the premises for unknown reasons.”
Impact Plastics said senior management and an assistant were the last to leave the building.independent person I have not been able to confirm this.
A spokesperson also said Associated Press that Impact Plastics conducts its own internal review About the incident.
Helen is now the deadliest hurricane in U.S. history after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The death toll reached 200 on Thursday, with hundreds more still missing. Storm damage due to climate change is expected to reach $250 billion.
From an Associated Press report
