Truckload of Employees Missing after Hurricane Helene

Erwin, TN (WorkersCompensation.com) – Officials are investigating a plastic manufacturing company after reports that a truckload of workers disappeared into the rising flood waters of Hurricane Helene.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said Monday it is investigating Impact Plastics after at least one worker said the company only gave employees 15 minutes to leave before rising water flooded the building. That same day, Impact Plastics representatives said some of its employees were either dead or missing after they attempted to escape the flash flood.

As Hurricane Helene ran up the middle of southeast on Friday, she dumped up to 10 inches of rain on parts of East Tennessee. The rain caused streams, lakes and rivers to overflow that morning. However, company officials said the danger wasn’t immediately visible, so people went to work, assuming it was just another work day. As water began to pool in the parking lot, the company said it took action.

“The company continued to monitor weather conditions,” Impact Plastics officials said in a statement. “When water began to cover the parking lot and the adjacent service road, and the plant lost power, employees were dismissed by management to return to their homes in time for them to escape the industrial park. ... While most employees left immediately, some remained on or near the premises for unknown reasons.”

The flooding then escalated, resulting in “high waters at the front door and coming into the building,” the company said.

An estimated 11 employees who had been outside of the plant were observed jumping on a truck in an attempt to get away from the rising floodwater, officials said. Others took off on foot, using an elevated CSX railroad track to stay above water. One worker shared videos of the scene on social media that showed the water rising from waist deep to shoulder deep in just a matter of minutes. When the water rose, vehicles began floating away – including the truck employees had jumped on to.

“Due to the quickly rising water, the truck tipped over and five employees and a contractor aboard the truck went missing,” the company said. “Five others who were also on the truck when it tipped over made it to safety and were later evacuated. Those who departed by the railroad tracks were offered assistance from employees of an adjacent company, making it to safety.”

One of the surviving employees, Jacob Ingram, said the company wasn’t completely accurate in its statement. He said he and his coworkers only had 15 minutes from the time employees got to leave before the floodwaters began to rise. He said lives could have been saved if they had been told to leave earlier.

“I didn’t hear anyone say ‘leave’ or nothing like that. I actually asked one of the higher ups,” Ingram told WVLT. “They told me ‘No, not yet.’ They have to ask someone before we was able to leave, even though it was already above the doors and the cars and everything else.”

Ingram said employees tried to get to higher ground while the water rose rapidly. As the floodwaters got higher and higher, he said he and others held on to a semi-truck for hours before using rolls of plastic gas piping as life preservers.

“I’m lucky to be alive and I hope all the other(s) I was with are okay,” he wrote in a Sept. 28 Facebook post.

Ingram said the truck flipped after being hit with debris several times. He and the four other workers floated about a half mile down the Nolichucky River until they stopped on top of an “island” of lumber, plastic pipes and stumps.

Ingram said many of his co-workers only spoke Spanish. The company said it used bilingual employees to convey messages to Spanish-speaking employees and contractors.

As rumors have spread that the company told employees they’d be fired if they left as the waters were rising, TBI has said it will investigate the company. Impact Plastics denies managers threatened anyone’s job.

“At no time were employees told that they would be fired if they left the facility,” the company said in a statement

First Judicial District Attorney General Steven R. Finney said in a press release Tuesday that he had spoken with the TBI and requested the agency look to identify any potential criminal violations.

Representatives for Impact Plastics told WVLT on Wednesday morning that the TBI had not yet contacted the company, but that it will fully cooperate with any investigation.

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