As the rain from Hurricane Helene came doಌwn harder and harder, workers inside a plastics factory in rural Tennessee kept working. It wasn't unti🍎l 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 rag🔥ing floodwaters swept 11 people away, and only five were rescued. Two of them are confirmed dead and part of the death toll across the affected states that passed 15༺0 Tuesday.
Four oth𓂃ers are still unaccounted for since they were washed away Friday in the small town of Erwin, Tennessee, where dozens of people were rescued off the r🌱oof of a hospital.
Some workers managed to drive away from the plant, while others got 🔥caught on a clogged road where water rose enough to sweep vehicles away. Videos show the brown floodwaters from the adjacent Nolichucky River covering the nearby highway and lapping at the doors of Impact Plastics.
Jacob Ingram, a mold changer at the plastics factory, filmed himself and four others waiting for rescue as bobbing vehicles floated by. He later posted ඣthe videos on Facebook with the caption, “Just wanna say I'm lucky to be alive.” Videos of the helicopter rescue were posted on social m🎉edia later on Saturday.
In one video, Ingram can be se👍en looking down at the camera, a green Tennessee National Guard helicopter hovering above him, hoisting one of the other survivors.ꦅ In another, a soldier can be seen rigging the next evacuee in a harness.
Impact Plastics said in a statement Monday it “continued to monitor weatheꦉr conditions" on Friday and that managers dismissed employees “when water began to cover the parking lot and the adjacent service road, and the plant lost power."
In interviews with local news outlets, two of the w๊orkers who made it out of the facility disputed those claims. One told News 5 WCYB that employees were made to wait until it was “too late.” Another, Ingram, made❀ a similar statement to the Knoxville News Sentinel.
“They should've evacuated when we got the flash flood warnings, and when they saw the parking lot,” Ingram said. “We asked them if ꧟we should evacuate, and they told us not yet, it wasn't bad enough.”
Worker Robert Jarvis told News 5 W𓂃CYB t♚hat the company should have let them leave earlier.
Jarvis said he tried to drive away in his car, but the water on the main road got too high, and on🦋ly off-road vehicles were finding ways out of the flood zone.
“The water was coming up,” he said. “A guy in ღa 4x4 came, picked a bunch of us up and saved our lives, or we'd have been dead, too.”
The 11 workers found temporary re𒆙spite on the back of a truck driven by a passerby, but it soon tipped over after debris hit it, I👍ngram said.
Ingram said he survived by grabbing onto plastic pipes that were on the truck. He said he and♌ four others fꦛloated for about half a mile (about 800 meters) before they found safety on a sturdy pile of debris.
Impact Plastic said Tuesd෴ay it didn't have any updates.
“We are devastated by the tragic loss of gr🌳eat employees,” company founder Gerald O'Connor said in the stꦍatement Monday. “Those who are missing or deceased, and their families are in our thoughts and prayers.”
Hurricane Helene's death toll incr🦩eased Tuesday as searches in multiple states continued. Survivors were looki𓆏ng for shelter and struggling to find running water, electricity and food. Others in the region are bracing for barriers to voting.
The two confirmed dead at the Tennessee𓆉 plastics factory are Mexican citizens, said Lisa Sherman-Ni♑kolaus, executive director at Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition. She said many of the victims' families have started online fundraisers to cover funeral costs and other expenses.
Bertha Mendoza was with her sister when the flooding started, but they got separated, according to a eul𒁃ogy on her GoFundMe page authored by her daughter-in-law, who declined an interview request.
“She was 🔯loved dearly by her family, community, her church family, and co-workers,” the eulogy read.
