Displaying items by tag: impact plastics

This still image from video shot by a victim of the flooding at Impact Plastics in Erwin illustrates the terror of the flood that killed five employees of the plant at the height of Tropical Storm Helene in September 2024.  Family of Johnny Peterson via WSMV

Victim’s attorney: A jury will ultimately decide what happened during flooding of Erwin plant

ERWIN — State safety officials ruled that Impact Plastics wasn’t responsible for the deaths of six employees who were killed by the catastrophic flash floods caused by Hurricane Helene in September.

But while company representatives were pleased with the outcome of the findings released April 3 by the Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration (TOSHA), both state law enforcement officials and private attorneys representing the victims’ families said that Impact Plastics hasn’t been cleared of wrongdoing just yet. 

For instance, a criminal probe conducted by the TBI was still underway and District Attorney General Steven R. Finney declined on Thursday to exonerate the company. Finney called in the TBI after the six employees were killed on September 27, 2024, to determine if criminal charges should be filed in connection with their deaths.

“At this time, the investigation concerning Impact Plastics is still pending,” Finney’s executive assistant, Chrystie Kyte, said in an e-mail to Hellbender Press. “General Finney has no comment at this time.”

The dead included five Impact Plastics employees and one independent contractor. They have been identified as Sibrina Barnett, Monica Hernandez, Bertha Mendoza, Johnny Peterson, Rosa Maria Andrade Reynoso and Lidia Verdugo. 

Helene fallout continues; hundreds still missing; at least 60 dead in NC; flooding and wind damage still widespread in Southern Appalachians; National Guard in action; land access, supplies, communications, water and power still spotty

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Demolished vehicles are seen in the area of what used to be Red Banks Campground in the Chestoa area of Unicoi County.  Thomas Fraser/Hellbender Press

ERWIN — The death toll from Hurricane Helene climbed to at least 180 people on Wednesday, making it the deadliest hurricane to hit the United States in 50 years with the exception of Hurricane Katrina, which claimed over 1,800 lives in 2005 in what was also a largely impoverished area.

In one-hard hit community in the mountains of northeast Tennessee, emotions grew high as Spanish-speaking family of missing loved ones accused first responders through an interpreter of showboating, classism and preferential rescues during a tense press conference broadcast live on X.

The mounting death toll and increasingly fruitless searches came as millions of people spent their sixth day without running water or power and an ad hoc army of first responders, volunteers and National Guard troops struggled to deliver life-saving supplies to communities throughout the Southern Appalachians that were cut off by the record breaking flash floods spawned by the storm.

In Erwin, a town of 6,000 in Unicoi County, officials confirmed that a criminal investigation had been launched into the conduct of a manufacturing company that was accused of forcing employees to keep working even as floodwaters rose to dangerous levels.