Terror in the factory: The workers trapped and killed after Hurricane Helene hit

Bertha Mendoza was last seen on September 27 at her workplace, the Impact Plastics factory, located in the Riverview industrial area in Erwin, Tennessee. Hurricane Helene had not yet unleashed all its force on the hills of the eastern part of the state. Once it hit, she was never heard from again. After two long days without news, the next time someone found Mendoza it was to rescue her lifeless body, buried under the wreckage caused by a hurricane that has so far left at least 180 dead and hundreds more missing in the United States.

Mendoza was 56 years old and, according to a GoFundMe fundraiser started by her sister Estrella Mendoza, who was with her when the flooding began, she was a “loving wife, mother, sister, daughter and grandmother.” Her sister explained that after the Nolichucky River, located just feet from the factory, overflowed, Bertha “was caught in the devastation” while “trying to stay afloat in the rushing current.”

Bertha was not the only worker who died at the factory due to the flooding caused by the hurricane, which made landfall on Thursday, September 26 in northern Florida, then moved some 50 miles inland. Helene has already been classified as one of the deadliest hurricanes in the last 50 years. According to authorities in Tennessee, there is one more confirmed fatality who, like Bertha Mendoza, was a Mexican citizen. Employees Rosa María Andrade Reynoso, Lidia Verdugo, Mónica Hernández and Rosy Andrade are also reported missing. Some of them even had time to call their relatives and ask for help before being swept away by the waters.

These deaths and disappearances have sparked many questions and accusations about the actions of Impact Plastics management: why were the employees working when orders had been given to evacuate the area? Why were they not sent home? These are the questions that the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI), located in Erwin, will try to answer in an investigation after receiving accusations directed at the factory management for not sending its employees home with enough time to reach safety. Some survivors and relatives of victims have told the press or reported on social media that they were not allowed to leave the workplace. “I asked that they review the occurrences of Friday, September 27, 2024, to identify any potential criminal violations,” Steve Finney, 1st Judicial District Attorney General, said in a statement.

The factory vs the victims: Two versions of the same event

Three days ago, Jacob Ingram, an Impact Plastic employee, posted videos on Facebook of the flooding that submerged several cars and caused the back of the factory to collapse. Press reports say that most of the victims were in the parking lot of the factory, as they were preparing to go home too late to escape the disaster. But they were caught by current and not all of them got out alive. Ingram said on Facebook that he and 11 others “got trapped in the back.” “Just wanna say I’m lucky to be alive,” he posted in the video caption.

Ingram, an eyewitness, is one of the workers who said his managers kept employees from leaving the premises even as the waters rose. “They should’ve evacuated when we got the flash flood warnings, and when they saw the parking lot, (flooded),” he told the Knoxville News Sentinel. “We asked them if we should evacuate, and they told us not yet, it wasn’t bad enough. And by the time it was bad enough, it was too late unless you had a four-wheel-drive.”

Other reports have emerged that some workers were threatened with being fired if they left the factory. Fernando Ruiz told local station WCYB that his mother was working at the factory while it was “really raining.” When she called, he asked her to return home, but she said that the bosses would not allow it. His mother is one of the missing people. Other witnesses say there were communication problems because the Hispanic workers did not speak English.

But this is not the official version maintained by the factory management, who, in addition to sending condolences for “the missing and deceased employees,” denied that they had prohibited workers from leaving the premises. “At no time were employees told that they would be fired if they left the facility,” the company said in a statement. “For employees who were non-English speaking, bilingual employees were among the group of managers who delivered the message.”

The statement said that “due to the quickly rising water” a truck tipped over and five employees and a contractor aboard went missing. “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,” continued the statement. A National Guard helicopter arrived at the scene and was able to save another five employees.

Relatives of the missing workers have been asking for help on social media to find their loved ones. Guadalupe Hernández Corona told WCYB that she was looking for her sister, Mónica Hernández. “She was saying they were inside of the factory, and they were on top of the trailer and saying goodbye and telling us to call 911 and pray for her,” Hernández said. The exact number of deceased and missing factory workers is not yet known.

This was not the only disaster to hit Tennessee residents in the wake of Helene. Just a mile from the factory, a helicopter rescued 54 employees and patients from Unicoi County Hospital, who were trapped by the rising river. The hurricane — “a history-making storm” as described by President Joe Biden — left entire towns without drinking water, knocked out power to more than 1.5 million people and caused extensive damage to roads and communities. It is estimated that in addition to being one of the deadliest storms, it will also be one of the costliest.

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