The Impact Plastics factory in rural Erwin, Tennessee, is located just a few hundred feet from the Nolichucky River. The company, founded in 1987, manufactures plastic injection molded components for original equipment manufacturers at the Erwin plant, located in the aptly named Riverview Industrial Park. Only a parking lot and two roads separate the workplace from the river.
When Hurricane Helene hit the region on Friday, September 27, its impact was cataclysmic. Rainfall swelled the river, and the waters quickly overtook the industrial park. It was one small piece of a catastrophe that has devastated the Appalachian region, with entire towns submerged — there are dozens of towns underwater in East Tennessee alone — and a death toll that, as of this writing, has surpassed 160 people.
Yet the flooding in Erwin led to a particular tragedy, the blame for which Impact Plastics workers pin on their employer: workers were inside the plant that day, and in the hurricane’s immediate wake, six were missing. In the days since, the families of two of those six — Bertha Mendoza and Lidia Verdugo, both Mexican citizens — have confirmed that their loved ones died in the flood.
According to the factory’s workers, they were told to report to work that day despite the imminent natural disaster.
Jacob Ingram, a mold changer at Impact Plastics, told the Knoxville News Sentinel that even as the water rose outside, managers wouldn’t let employees leave, instead telling them to move their cars away from the rising floodwater. Ingram said he moved his car twice.
“They should’ve evacuated when we got the flash flood warnings, and when they saw the parking lot,” Ingram said. “When we moved our cars, we should’ve evacuated then . . . we asked them if we should evacuate, and they told us not yet, it wasn’t bad enough. By the time it was bad enough, it was too late.”
There is no work-life balance when work takes your life.
Robert…
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Auteur: Alex N. Press
