Factory employees clung desperately to a truck before Helene floodwaters swept them away

[duncang]

Source: Knox News Sentinal

A group of employees from Erwin’s Impact Plastics clung to spools of flexible yellow plastic pipes on the back of a semitruck for hours Sept. 27 waiting for help as the swollen Nolichucky River raged around them.

But the truck tipped over and at least seven people were swept away by the floodwaters, Knox News has learned.

At least one woman in the group died, according to an immigrants rights group that has been working with families of some of the employees who worked there. And the company confirmed the death of one other person, but did not give details about their identity.

Snip:

The truck was hit again, but this time the piece of debris was much bigger, the impact much harder, and the the truck flipped. Ingram crammed his hands under a plastic band around the yellow pipes.




Read more: https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/local/2024/10/01/tennessee-impact-plastics-employees-fought-desperately-to-stay-above-hurricane-helene-floodwaters/75450498007/

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When the hurricane was forecast to come in the area managment should have started clearing the equipment and let the emplyees leave. Without power the plastic will harden and cause major problems.They knew that. Not shutting down was greed. Thoughts and prayers won't bring family members back.

[cilla4progress]

1. The immigrants stories we DONT hear.

Hope this goes viral.

[ReRe]

2. Every life is precious.

So many lives were lost in this hurricane.

And so many lives were affected.

[samnsara]

3. i visited friends in RI right before Sandy hit and there were signs on all the businsses stating...

..they were gonna close at X o'clock because of Sandy...EXCEPT Dunkin Donuts. My friends...and others...told me that Dunkin Donuts wont close until the very last minute.

Now I'm from the PNW and we dont have hurricanes or other really predictable dangerous weather events so is this true about Dunkin Donuts in general or was it just a regional thing?


such a sad story...

[North Coast Lawyer]

6. Seems to be a Regional Thing

I was in Portland Oregon going to grad school in 1995 when a big storm hit. Nothing like a hurricane but pretty intense nonetheless.

https://portlandweather.com/weather-headlines/130

The entire city shut down hours ahead of the storm. At first I thought they were over reacting but when the storm hit there was a lot of damage (and extended power outages). Seems authorities and businesses in some places are better at protecting their people.

[cactusfractal]

4. They kept them until the power went down 😡

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/tennessee-authorities-investigating-impact-plastics-after-flooding-swept-away-11-of-its-factory-workers

[Warpy]

5. Some of the people who got out agree with your conclusion

Last edited Wed Oct 2, 2024, 06:07 PM - Edit history (1)

Not graphic but very hard to watch:

It looks like the place ran on immigrants and temps, meaning there was likely a big order and a lot of pressure to finish it on time.

I still haven't been able to find out who owns them.

The area looks pretty flat, like there was little in the way of higher ground. About all they could do was run through the trees, away from the river.

ETA: while their deeply heartfelt sympathy has been expressed to the media, they've been busy little beavers when it comes to scrubbing web pages. Even their factories in other states are giving 404s on the "who we are" sort of pages. It does make me wonder who the parent company is.

[markodochartaigh]

9. I found this.

"We are devastated by the tragic loss of great employees," company founder Gerald O'Connor said in the statement Monday. "Those who are missing or deceased, and their families are in our thoughts and prayers."


https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/tennessee-authorities-investigating-impact-plastics-after-flooding-swept-away-11-of-its-factory-workers

[iluvtennis]

7. This is heartbreaking. Hard for me to wrap my head around management doing this to their workers.

[duncang]

8. Honestly to me

It doesn’t surprise me at all. I’ve been on jobs that bosses wrap a paper towel or something else then use any tape around to take care of a cut. Hint if you go to a doctor there maybe a problem.

The idea that because a person wasn’t officially declared dead on the job he didn’t die on the job.

I’ve seen a lot of things similar. I’ve been kept until the last minute. Never as bad as this one though.