A Tennessee factory worker breaks down when recounting his experiences working during Hurricane Helene, resulting in 2 deaths and 4 disappearances.
A shocking incident during Hurricane Helene has occurred at the Impact Plastics factory in Erwin, Tennessee. According to accounts, at least two employees died and numerous more are missing after their managers threatened to fire them if they didn’t work through the storm.
As the state of Tennessee investigates, two surviving employees have given sobering descriptions of what transpired at the factory that day and are demanding answers from their superiors.
Robert Jarvis, a Tennessee Impact Plastics manufacturing worker, broke down while recounting Hurricane Helene’s effects.
The Erwin, Tennessee scenario is stunning. As Hurricane Helene rains flooded the Nolichucky River, workers report being forced to work by their supervisors. Only after the electricity went out could they escape.
Unfortunately, terrible floodwaters had overrun the town, and 11 workers were carried away while trying to evacuate the factory. Two are killed and four are missing.
Impact Plastics employee Robert Jarvis, who survived the harrowing disaster, told local news station WCYB about the callous response management gave workers that led to their deaths and Impact Plastics’ version of events.
The company claims employees were given adequate opportunity to quit and were not threatened with termination.
Impact Plastics expressed compassion to workers and their families but claimed they stayed at the factory of their own choosing and were given adequate opportunity to safely leave.
“While most employees left immediately, some remained on or near the premises for unknown reasons,” the corporation told media, brutally insensitive.
The firm also defended its managers’ performance, saying, “Senior management and aides oversaw employee departures, assessed damage, and preserved company records. They left the building last.”
After many speculated that a language barrier among many of the factory’s Hispanic employees contributed to the disaster, the corporation denies ever threatening employees with termination if they quit and asserts that all communication was given in English and Spanish.
But Jarvis claims Impact Plastics’ claims are ‘lies,’ and that he and his coworkers were compelled to work until it was too late.
Jarvis told WCYB that Impact Plastics’ statement made him feel “anger” and “hurt.” He said that the company’s version of events was “lies.”
“What really happened was that we were all working and the power went out,” stated.
“I got a text right when the power went out from another employee saying that the parking lot was flooded.”
After observing the scene, Jarvis says a manager told him to transfer his car to “higher ground.” However, the floodwaters blocked any dry ground. After asking to leave, he was told the management had to consult with another.
“Ten minutes later she came back and said y’all can leave,” Jarvis said, but by then, “it was too late. We had one way in, one way out… and the one way out was blocked off so we were stuck.”
Another nearby business’s employees tried to help Impact Plastics’ staff escape by ripping open a fence along another route. But water was rising too rapidly.
Jarvis said Good Samaritans saved him and many others as his car was swept away.
“A guy in a 4×4 came and picked a bunch of us up and saved our lives or we’d have been dead too,” said.
Impact Plastics is under investigation in Tennessee.
Impact Plastics lied about Hurricane Helene, according to witnesses other than Jarvis. Similar tales were relayed by Jacob Ingram, another employee. He also captured terrifying video of the scenario before staff were permitted to depart.
According to Ingram, “they have to pay for what they did.” He, like Jarvis, requested to evacuate during the flooding but was rejected. He and his coworkers hid on a semi-truck for over two hours until it tipped over and threw them into the floodwaters. National Guard helicopters rescued him and four other employees.
After Ingram’s camera showed floodwaters nearly reaching the factory’s ceiling, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation investigated Impact Plastics’ “potential criminal violations” in managing the issue.
The Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration is collaborating with the TBI to conduct a “on-site inquiry into the circumstances leading to employee deaths at Impact Plastics,” said to spokeswoman Chris Cannon.
Jarvis, Ingram, and their coworkers’ families want Impact Plastics to explain the ‘greed’ that killed them.
“It hurts.” Jarvis told WYCB of absent or deceased colleagues, “It hurts knowing that they didn’t make it… It just doesn’t seem fair to me that they didn’t make it.”
He joins the band of grieving family members who blame the firm for their loved ones’ murders and disappearances. Two perished trying to flee.
Survivor Guillermo Mendoza claims his mother, Bertha, died after being swept away on a truck’s flatbed while being rescued from the factory’s floodwaters. Fernando Ruiz, Lidia Verdugo’s son, said she slipped from a truck rescuing her and was washed away.
Jarvis was struck with grief when asked what he would like to say to Impact Plastics about his experience and the loss of his coworkers. “Why’d you make us work that day? Why? We shouldn’t have worked, we shouldn’t have been there. None of us should have been there… They were good, every one of them were good people.”
He attributes their deaths and disappearances to one thing. “It broke my heart to see that they died and they didn’t make it all because of greed.”
It’s hard to think of a more stomach-turning example of America’s astonishingly sick work culture and the barbaric treatment of workers. Especially low-wage and blue-collar ones, that has become standard.
How many more American workers will die after choosing between job and health?
