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By Sam Stockard

Tennessee Lookout
The state is conducting criminal and workplace investigations into the deaths of three people at an East Tennessee plastics plant where workers say management forced them to remain at the factory as floodwater from Hurricane Helene rose to dangerous levels.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is probing the deaths at the request of an East Tennessee district attorney general, and the Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration (TOSHA) is looking into the matter to determine the circumstances that led to fatalities. The TBI investigation supersedes TOSHA’s jurisdiction, but the workplace safety agency will work with TBI to determine when it can start an on-site inspection of the Unicoi County plant.

State law gives an employer eight hours to notify TOSHA about workplace fatalities, but the administration said it had not received a fatality report from Impact Plastics by Wednesday, more than five days after the deaths.

Three workers died and three remain missing after the flood swept them away at the Erwin plant, according to reports. All told, 11 Tennesseans are dead and 23 are missing in what is being described as a “historic” flood, according to the emergency officials.

President Joe Biden deployed 1,000 active-duty troops to the storm-ravaged region Wednesday and the Federal Emergency Management Agency made disaster assistance available to Tennessee for recovery in eight counties hit the hardest, meaning grant money can be used for temporary housing, storm repairs, low-cost loans for uninsured property losses and other programs to help business owners recover.

Gov. Bill Lee confirmed Wednesday at a Nashville press conference the TBI is conducting an investigation into the deaths. The state probe should reveal whether there were problems with workers being required to remain at the plant until it was too late to escape the floodwater, Lee said.

The state agency said agents started looking into allegations involving Impact Plastics at the request of District Attorney General Steve Finney of Washington County.

Finney said in a statement he requested the state review the Friday incident to “identify any potential criminal violations.”

“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,” said a Monday statement from Impact Plastics.

The investigation is expected to determine whether Impact Plastics management refused to send workers home soon enough to escape as the Erwin industrial park flooded rapidly or made them believe they weren’t allowed to leave in time to get out alive.

Impact Plastics spokesperson Tony Treadway said Wednesday the company is aware of the investigation and will cooperate though it hasn’t been contacted. The company is conducting its own internal review of the day and timelines and will release it when available, Treadway said.

Impact Plastics sent out a press release early this week expressing “sympathy for the missing and deceased employees,” according to WJHL.

“We are devastated by the tragic loss of great employees,” Impact Plastics founder Gerald O’Connor said in the release. “Those who are missing or deceased, and their families are in our thoughts and prayers.”

The company started monitoring weather conditions Friday after heavy rain the previous night, and management sent workers home when the plant lost power and water began to cover the parking lot and a nearby service road, according to the release.

“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,” according to the statement.

While most workers left the facility, some stayed at the plant or nearby for “unknown reasons,” the statement says. It noted that senior management and assistants were the last to leave after remaining in the building to save company records, assess the impact of flooding on the plant and ensure workers left.

Some workers left the industrial park in a truck driven by a neighboring company’s employee, and other Impact Plastics employees reportedly used a railroad track behind the plant to leave because of high water at the facility’s front.

“Due to the quickly rising water, the truck tipped over and five employees and a contractor aboard the truck went missing,” the release says. “Five others who were also on the truck when it tipped over made it to safety and were later evacuated.

A National Guard helicopter also was sent at the request of senior management to look for other workers and airlifted five to safety, according to the release.

The company, which plans to reopen at some point, was organizing a recovery center for workers to provide information on benefits and job opportunities, the release says.

Search for missing continues

Six days after the flood hit, Gov. Lee said the response requires a “herculean effort,” as searches continue for missing people.

“We’re in the middle of what is a remarkably difficult and tragic unfolding in East Tennessee, and there is a remarkable effort to meet the needs of those folks,” said Lee, who has visited the disaster areas twice.

The governor noted he declared an emergency Friday afternoon after the worst of the flooding took place and pointed out nobody could have predicted the epic event.

Tennessee Emergency Management Agency started holding briefings with county emergency officials as early as Wednesday last week, followed by a statewide weather briefing on Thursday.

TEMA Director Patrick Sheehan said he initiated a level IV state of emergency Thursday afternoon and asked for an emergency declaration based on conditions, then an expedited major disaster declaration with the federal government to increase local services.

Asked if better communication was needed to speed up evacuations, based on weather forecasts predicting major flooding, Sheehan responded that “catastrophic flood warnings” were issued in North Carolina primarily, not Tennessee.

Sheehan pointed out, though he gave press briefings Thursday talking about the potential for flooding and cautioning people who live in low-lying areas to be prepared.

Supply center set

Bristol Motor Speedway opened its facility as a staging point for supplies, and all donations are to be sent there. Numerous churches, nonprofit agencies and residents are getting involved as well, he said, along with local law enforcement and emergency response departments in the most affected counties, Washington, Carter, Unicoi, Johnson, Greene and Cocke.

Nearly 400 National Guard personnel are working the flood scenes, operating airlifts with Blackhawk helicopters to provide supplies to cut-off residents whose roads are washed out. Another 400 Department of Transportation employees are working in the region, inspecting 300 bridges and miles of roads, and 200 Highway Patrol troopers are supplementing local law enforcement.

The state reopened 25 of 48 sections of closed highways, and seven of 13 shutdown bridges have been opened for passage. One bridge on state Route 351 will require a long-term repair, and five other bridges that were destroyed will have to be rebuilt.

The cost is expected to be hundreds of millions of dollars, and Tennessee could tap into emergency federal funds to rebuild highways and bridges, according to Transportation Commissioner Butch Eley.

In addition, the state inspected 102 locally-owned bridges, 12 of which were washed out.

Officials said at one point more than 1.2 million gallons of water per second flowed over the Nolichucky Dam, dwarfing the amount that goes over Niagara Falls, which has a peak daily flow of 700,000 gallons per second.

To speed up work on damaged roads, the state signed four construction contracts and four debris removal contracts to enable workers to start rebuilding. More contracts are expected to be awarded in the coming weeks.

The region was down to 1,400 power outages Wednesday from 5,000 on Tuesday, but communications remained sketchy, especially in Carter County. The state was working with communications companies to bring systems back online.

The state is opening multi-agency response centers in affected counties, where people can go for services such as driver’s license renewals, food assistance or help from the Department of Human Services and Department of Children’s Services, according to the governor.

Sheehan said Wednesday more than 600 homes were damaged in four counties, 120 of which were destroyed. Another 313 had major damage, and the numbers are expected to increase, he said.

As people start to return to their homes, Sheehan warned them to beware of toxic sludge and wear proper gear.

The state opened a crisis clean-up hotline at 844-965-1386.

People are encouraged to document damage, call insurance companies and gather important documents.

Donation sites also are being set up in affected counties. Information on those and more flood-related news is expected to be available on the TEMA website, tn.gov/tema.

Tennessee Lookout, www.TennesseeLookout.com, is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

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