Tennessee state authorities on Wednesday said they are investigating a plastics factory where 11 workers were swept away by floodwaters from Hurricane Helene.
The incident occurred at Impact Plastics in the small town of Erwin on Friday, where employees continued working despite rising waters from the nearby Nolichucky River. As the situation worsened, workers were reportedly delayed in their efforts to evacuate the factory, and by the time the parking lot flooded and power went out, it was too late as 11 people were carried away.
Only five of the workers who were swept away have been rescued, while two have been confirmed dead. The search continues for the four others still missing. The disaster is part of the broader destruction left behind by Helene, which has claimed more than 160 lives across six states.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, acting on a request from District Attorney Steven R. Finney, said the agency is investigating allegations involving Impact Plastics.
In addition, Finney said in a statement that he asked the bureau to look into any potential criminal violations related to the “occurrences” on Friday.
An aerial view of flood damage in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene on September 28, 2024, in Erwin, Tennessee. A Tennessee plastics factory where 11 employees were swept away by floodwaters from Helene is under investigation.
George Walker IV/AP
Impact Plastics has since released a statement stating they “continued to monitor weather conditions” Friday and that managers dismissed employees “when water began to cover the parking lot and the adjacent service road, and the plant lost power.”
However, some employees have disputed this timeline, saying they were kept at the factory until it was too late to escape safely.
Newsweek reached out to Impact Plastics and Finney’s office via email on Wednesday for comment.
Videos captured by one of the survivors, Jacob Ingram, a mold changer at the factory, show the harrowing moments workers waited for rescue as floodwaters rise and vehicles float by. Eventually, a helicopter rescue team from the Tennessee National Guard arrived to airlift them to safety.
Ingram, who shared the footage on social media, expressed his relief to be alive after surviving the ordeal by clinging to plastic pipes but said the company should have evacuated them earlier.
“They should’ve evacuated when we got the flash flood warnings, and when they saw the parking lot,” Ingram told the Knoxville News Sentinel. “We asked them if we should evacuate, and they told us not yet, it wasn’t bad enough.”
Another survivor, Robert Jarvis, told NBC-affiliated station WCYB-TV that employees were made to wait until it was “too late” as he tried to drive away but was trapped by floodwaters that overtook roads.
“The water was coming up,” Jarvis said. “A guy in a 4×4 came, picked a bunch of us up and saved our lives, or we’d have been dead, too.”
The two confirmed victims of the factory incident were Mexican nationals, according to Lisa Sherman-Nikolaus, executive director at Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, which is helping families of the victims raise funds for funeral expenses.
Gerald O’Connor, the founder of Impact Plastics, expressed the company’s grief in a statement on Monday, offering condolences to the families of the deceased and missing workers.
“We are devastated by the tragic loss of great employees,” O’Connor said. “Those who are missing or deceased, and their families are in our thoughts and prayers.”
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.
