Two Mexican citizens who worked in a plastics factory in Tennesseewhich allegedly did not allow its employees to evacuate during the passage of Helene, which entered Florida as a hurricane last Thursday, They died amid the serious floods recorded in the state.
This was confirmed to the AP by Lisa Sherman-Nikolaus, executive director of the Tennessee Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has launched investigation into Impact Plastics plant evacuation responseas reported this Wednesday by Knox News.
Factory employees, many of them Mexican, have alleged that the company did not allow them to leave their jobs when flood alerts were issued in Erwin, located on the North Carolina border.
“We were all talking to the supervisors and telling everyone, ‘Look, we don’t need to be here,’” Impact Plastic employee Zinna Adkins told WJHL. “Our phone alerts said we had to flee those areas. But they never said anything about it. And the supervisors didn’t tell us we could leave.”
The waters and mud of the swollen Nolichucky River flooded the buildings of the Riverview industrial center, where the company is located, and carried away employees who were trying to escape in their cars, witnesses have told local media.
Impact Plastics denied this Monday in a statement that it had forced workers to stay after the flood alert was issued and “expressed condolences for missing and deceased employees and a contractor.”
“At no time were employees told that they would be fired if they left the facility,” the statement continued.
Impact Plastics says that while most employees left immediately after the evacuation order, “some remained on or near the facility for unknown reasons.”
“Among the non-English speaking employees, there were bilingual employees among the group of managers who delivered the message,” the Impact Plastics statement reads.
The company, which opened an internal investigation, has confirmed the death of one person, but has not identified them.
“The company is conducting an internal review of activities and schedules for September 27 and will share the information once complete,” a spokesperson told Fox News Digital on Wednesday.
Repatriation of body to Mexico
The Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition has identified Bertha Mendoza and Mónica Hernández as two of the deceased workers. While Rosa María Andrade Reynoso and Lydia Verdugo remain missing.
This Tuesday, families expressed frustration over the delay by county officials in identifying the bodies and helping the families of the missing.
The family of Mendoza, 56, told NBC that the immigrant’s body was found on Saturday. The woman managed to call her 38-year-old husband while she was trapped by the waters.
For its part, Hernández’s family is raising money to send the immigrant’s body to Mexico, where she wanted to be buried.
The death toll from Hurricane Helene has risen to 175 this Wednesday and hundreds of people are still missing in six states, making it, along with 2022’s Hurricane Ian, which was responsible for 150 fatalities, one of the deadliest cyclones. of this century recorded in the continental United States.
North Carolina is the most affected state with at least 90 dead and entire communities devastated like Asheville.
United States President Joe Biden will visit North Carolina this Wednesday to learn firsthand about the response. Meanwhile, Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris will visit Georgia.
Biden ordered the Department of Defense to deploy up to 1,000 active-duty soldiers to reinforce the North Carolina National Guard, with rescue and aid delivery maneuvers.
With information from EFE
Keep reading:
• Evacuations begin in Florida due to the proximity of Hurricane Helen
• Storm Helene conditions could make it a major hurricane this Thursday
• A hurricane could hit the Florida coast this week
