TN investigating factory where 11 employees were swept away in Helene flooding

Tennessee state authorities said Wednesday they were investigating the company that owns a plastics factory where 11 workers were swept away by cataclysmic flooding unleashed by Hurricane Helene.

As the nearby Nolichucky River swelled from rainfall, employees in the Impact Plastics factory in Erwin, a small community in rural east Tennessee, kept working. Several asserted that they weren’t allowed to leave in time to avoid the storm’s impact. It wasn’t until water flooded into the parking lot and the power went out that the plant shut down and sent workers home.

Several never made it.

The raging waters swept 11 people away, and only five were rescued. Two of them are confirmed dead and are part of a toll across six states that has surpassed 180. Four others from the factory are still missing since they were washed away Friday in Erwin, where dozens of people were also rescued off the roof of a hospital.

Tennessee Bureau of Investigation spokesperson Leslie Earhart said Wednesday that the agency is investigating allegations involving Impact Plastics at the direction of the local prosecutor.

“Impact Plastics has not been contacted by the TBI yet but will fully cooperate with their investigation,” said the company’s spokesperson, Tony Treadway. He said the company is preparing an internal review, which it will release to the public.

Some workers managed to drive away from the plant, while others got caught on a clogged road where water rose high enough to sweep vehicles away. Videos show the brown floodwaters covering the nearby highway and lapping at the doors of Impact Plastics.

Jacob Ingram, a mold changer at the factory, filmed himself and four others waiting for rescue as bobbing vehicles floated by. He later posted the videos on Facebook with the caption, “Just wanna say im lucky to be alive.” Videos of their helicopter rescue were posted on social media later Saturday.

In one video, Ingram looks down at the camera, a green Tennessee National Guard helicopter hovering above him, hoisting one of the other survivors. In another, a soldier rigs the next evacuee in a harness.

Impact Plastics said in a statement Monday that it “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.”

Secondary to the Bureau of Investigation, the state’s workplace safety office opened its own probe Wednesday into the circumstances behind the deaths. While announcing the investigation, the Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration noted that companies have eight hours to report a workplace death, and it hadn’t yet received a fatality report from Impact Plastics as of Wednesday evening.



Aerial view of flood damage at Erwin, TN. (AP Photo George Walker IV)