Rescuers find body of worker missing from Tennessee factory after Helene flooding

Rescue workers in east Tennessee said Friday they have recovered the body of the final person still missing after massive flooding from Hurricane Helene hit a plastics factory there.

Rosa Andrade, 29, was one of six employees killed after they were unable to escape the rising waters around Impact Plastics in Erwin. Surviving workers have stated they were not allowed to leave until water had flooded the plant’s parking lot and the power went out. Eleven people were swept away and only five were rescued.

The captain of Unicoi County Search and Rescue, Andrew Harris, said emergency workers discovered Andrade’s body on Wednesday, more than a month after the Sept. 27 flood of the Nolichucky River.

Normally running 2 feet deep, the river rose to a record 30 feet that day, with more than 1.4 million gallons of water running downstream each second — twice as much as Niagara Falls.

Relatives of some of those who were killed have sued Impact Plastics. They include the family of Johnny Peterson, who managed to climb onto a bed of a semi-trailer that was attempting to escape the area and send text messages to his family before being swept away.

The workers who died were among the more than 200 people killed by Helene in remote towns throughout the Appalachians. It was the deadliest hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland since Katrina in 2005.


(AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File)