Helene floodwaters trapped Tennessee plastics plant employees, and some are among the missing and dead

Floodwaters from Hurricane Helene trapped workers at an eastern Tennessee plastics factory, with several family members learning Monday that their loved ones didn’t survive.

Some of the workers’ relatives got frantic video phone calls as the flood swelled around Impact Plastics in Erwin, where rushing waters swept some workers away from the parking lot located next to the Nolichucky River. 

The families and friends had been posting desperate pleas on social media for help in finding their relatives. Some showed up at a news conference carrying photos of the missing and pressed authorities to locate them.

Slowly, their postings were updated to say that their loved ones, several of them Latino, had died. 

According to reports on social media, the workers were trapped outside the building, which was surrounded by fast-moving flood waters that kept them from leaving. 

Alexa Peterson, of Erwin, confirmed to NBC News that her father, Johnny Peterson, was among the dead. Based on social media, he appears to have been one of the workers. Peterson was seeking legal representation and declined to comment further. 

In interviews with WCYB News 5 in Tennessee, family members said their loved ones had told them they were not advised what to do. 

Fernando Ruiz, who was searching for his mother, told the station through an interpreter that she was still working during the rain and called him. He said he told her to leave but she told him managers were not telling her anything. 

NBC News has requested a comment from authorities in Unicoi County, but has not heard back.

Impact Plastics issued a news release expressing sympathy for employees who were missing or had died, and for a contractor, whose status they did not describe.  

“We are devastated by the tragic loss of great employees,” said Gerald O’Connor, who, according to the release, founded the company in 1987.

“At no time were employees told that they would be fired if they left the facility. For employees who were non-English speaking, bilingual employees were among the group of managers who delivered the message,” the company stated. 

Rainfall had been intense Friday morning, but it eased as the morning progressed, the company’s release stated. Employees were dismissed, however, when water covered the parking lot and the adjacent road, and the plant lost power. 

President Joe Biden has approved an emergency declaration for Tennessee.

Another woman identified as Guadalupe Hernandez Corona said she was looking for her sister, Monica Hernandez. 

“She was saying they were inside of the factory,” Hernandez Corona told the station, “and they were on top of the trailer and saying goodbye and telling us to call 911 and pray for her.”

An immigration group that was working with some of the families called for better services for immigrants in times of disaster. In a news release, the group, Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, said its staff witnessed people unable to get interpretation services from local and state government agencies, and some immigrant family members being asked to provide identification, which “hindered their ability to find missing loved ones.” 

Hurricane Helene has killed more than 120 and left a trail of destruction since making landfall in Florida as a Category 4 storm on Thursday.