Deaths of Tennessee factory workers in Hurricane Helene flooding was 'not work-related,' state agency finds
Tennessee's workplace safety agency has absolved a plastics plant of responsibility in the deaths of six workers who were swept away by floodwaters from Hurricane Helene in September.
The Sept. 27 deaths gained national attention when community members and relatives of the mostly Latino plant employees questioned why they hadn't been dismissed from work early enough to escape the record levels of rain that overcame the plastics factory in Erwin and the only road out.
The report from the Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration (TOSHA) published Wednesday, said that because 'work operations had stopped and employees had left the building,' the deaths were not work-related and thus not within its jurisdiction.
'After considering the evidence," Chris Cannon, a spokesman with the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, said, "TOSHA determined that company management exercised reasonable diligence in dismissing employees and providing them sufficient time to leave the facility safely.'
A criminal probe by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation into the deaths is still underway, said Leslie Earhart, the bureau's spokesperson.
Five employees and one contractor were killed when the semi-truck trailer they had sought refuge on was overtaken by raging floodwaters. They were Monica Hernandez-Corona, 44; Bertha Mendoza, 56; Johnny Peterson, 55; Lidia Verdugo Gastelum, 63; Rosa Maria Andrade Reynoso, 29; and Sibrina Barnett, 53. Six others were tossed from the truck bed and later rescued.
Attorneys representing relatives of some of the deceased employees rejected the probe's conclusions.
'TOSHA's report ignores multiple witnesses' testimonies, critical text messages, emergency alert logs, and photographic evidence that tell the real story about Impact Plastics' fatal failures," Zack Lawson, an attorney representing Alexa Peterson, Johnny Peterson's daughter, in a wrongful death lawsuit against Impact Plastics. "We're grateful that in America, juries — not bureaucrats citing unnamed sources — will decide the truth based on all the evidence."
Greg Coleman, an attorney for the Mendoza and Barnett families, said in a statement from his firm that they 'vehemently disagree with any characterization that Impact Plastics exercised reasonable diligence in dismissing employees.'
According to Coleman, "the facts simply do not support" a finding that the floodwaters were already too high and strong when the factory "finally, and begrudgingly, allowed workers to leave."
While he agreed with a suggestion from the safety administration that the plant should improve its emergency plans, he stated that "this comes far too late for our clients."
Relatives of the missing and dead factory employees, and those who survived, have alleged they were made to show up to work even as the hurricane was moving through the area.
The day before the historic flood, the National Weather Service in Morristown, Tennessee, issued several warnings of potential flooding for the rest of the week.
The local school district canceled school, citing weather warnings, and at least one other company in the same industrial park as Impact Plastics, Foam Products Corp., closed their doors Friday. It was the first time their Erwin plant had ever closed for extreme weather.
Impact Plastics, which manufactures components for cars, helicopters, furniture and other products, decided to open that Friday, as did several other nearby businesses.
Through lawyers, Impact Plastics said in a statement Wednesday that it welcomed the results of TOSHA's investigation and that the company and its founder, Gerald O'Connor, have cooperated with it.
'Impact Plastics and Gerald O'Connor continue to concentrate on seeing to the needs of members of the Impact Plastics family and grieving over the wonderful people who were lost in the flood," the company stated. "Mr. O'Connor is focused on rebuilding Impact Plastics for the benefit of the employees, the customers, and the community.'
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
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What really happened outside the Paramount Home Depot? The reality on the ground vs. the rhetoric
It began as another Saturday morning at the Home Depot in Paramount, a working class, predominantly Latino suburb south of downtown Los Angeles. Typically, the store that is nestled along the Los Angeles River bed would be filled with weekend warriors tackling home improvements, workers collecting supplies and immigrants in search of work. But that morning, border patrol agents were spotted across the street from the Home Depot, gathering around 9 a.m. Word quickly spread on social media. Passersby honked their horns. Soon, protesters arrived. Home Depot eventually closed. The clashes between authorities and protesters lasted for hours in both Paramount and nearby Compton, though it was far from widespread. The chaos covered the area directly around the Alondra Boulevard store, but it was enough to provide for dramatic TV video. 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Agents were still arriving there and the black gate they would later guard with volleys of tear gas and flash-bang grenades was open. Unclear why they were there, he decided to record a post for Instagram. 'I saw a border agent get off the freeway here off of Alondra. I was like, No, it can't be happening,' he said. It was around 9 a.m. 'This is horrible,' he said on one of the posts. 'I am literally shaking.' 'I don't know what they're doing inside. But, I mean, why were they in Paramount?,' he told his followers. Word quickly spread on social media. Passersby honked their horns. Soon, protesters arrived. 'This is the situation,' Solache, the Assemblymember, said, turning the camera to show dozens of uniformed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents outside the black gates, as people held up cameras to the scene and mariachi music blared. 'The community is coming out strong to show that they are not welcome in our community,' said Solache, whose parents immigrated to the U.S. from Guanajuato, Mexico. 'No en mi distrito. Not in my district. Vámonos pa' fuera (let's go, get out of here).' Outrage had been growing in Los Angeles and its Latino immigrant community after a week of stepped up enforcement actions. The day before, federal officials raided a retail and distribution warehouse in the Fashion District downtown, a business district fueled by immigrants, and arrested a top union official. Leading up to the workplace raid, federal agents arrested immigrants as they came to scheduled check-ins or made courthouse appearances up and down the state, tearing apart families. One father was arrested in front of his 8-year old-son. Parent groups raised alarms after a Torrance elementary student and his father were set for deportation. For many, talk about deporting violent criminals didn't ring true. 'This whole rhetoric of coming after hardworking families is what we are all concerned about,' Solache said. 'When you come to do raids at businesses, that is where the anger comes from.' He said he and many others came out to observe and send a message that immigration enforcement wasn't welcome in their community. The scene began to turn darker as agents formed a line and brought out rifles that shot out tear gas and pushed the crowds back. The protests arrived as word spread on social media of a raid at Home Depot or at a meatpacking place. There was never a raid at Home Depot but dozens of Border Patrol agents and other federal agencies were inside a gated industrial office park, where an initial crowd had gathered. Most protesters were filming. There were social workers, neighbors and advocates. But near the gates, any time federal agents saw that protesters threw anything toward them or neared the police line, they shot out tear gas or flash-bang rounds. There were about 100 people there. As the crowd grew, sheriff's deputies were deployed to block off a perimeter on the east and west, near the 710 Freeway. Protesters shouted at deputies, asking why they were helping. The crowds began to form, as hundreds of rounds were shot in the late morning near the office park. Around noon, tensions grew as the agents attempted to clear the way for border patrol and other unmarked vehicles to leave the business park. They fired tear gas and flash-bang grenades at demonstrators standing on Alondra Boulevard. When a caravan of federal vehicles departed from the gates, protesters followed them, throwing rocks and other objects. Shortly after they left, one protester brought out a trash bag and set it ablaze. A couple of others pushed a cart with concrete blocks from Home Depot and they lined the road to block vehicles. One man smashed the block and spread the broken pieces on the road. Farther west along Alondra Boulevard, a crowd was gathering behind a perimeter set up by the sheriff's deputies near the 710 Freeway. Then a U.S. Marshall bus pulled up to Alondra from the freeway. The crowd surrounded the bus trying to push it back, kicking at it until tear gas was shot. The standoff continued into the afternoon with protesters recording a line of sheriff's deputies equipped with shields and so-called nonlethal weapons at the intersection of Alondra Boulevard and Hunsaker Avenue, on the east perimeter and next to Manuel Dominguez High School. The crowd chanted 'ICE go home' and 'no justice, no peace.' Some people yelled at the deputies, questioning why they were out in force. At some point, deputies began shooting flash-bang grenades at the crowd, forcing them to retreat. People became angered, cursing at deputies. At least one man was seen yelling at the deputies while recording them: 'What the hell are you doing?! Nobody's hurting you, nobody's doing anything but making noise, are you intimidated by f— noise?!' One woman among the protest group appeared to be bleeding, and another man was treated for injuries. At least one person walked around with his shirt off, his back bruised from foam projectiles that had struck him. In the distance, near the business park, demonstrators were setting off fireworks and a billow of black smoke could be seen. Despite the use of tear gas and so-called nonlethal projectiles, people returned to the intersection of Alondra Boulevard and Hunsaker Avenue, screaming at deputies, mocking them at times. Around 4 p.m., the confrontation near a Home Depot was declared an unlawful assembly, and officials warned protesters in Spanish and English to leave the area. By 7 p.m., about 100 protesters had gathered on the other side of the 710 Freeway near Atlantic Avenue and Alondra Boulevard, where some were lobbing rocks and bottles at L.A. County sheriff's deputies. They set at least three fires in the area including a car that burned in the middle of the intersection. At some point, the deputies retreated back to the bottom of a bridge that runs over the 710 Freeway and the Los Angeles River. Throughout the night deputies and demonstrators exchanged jabs, with demonstrators launching fireworks that exploded near the line of deputies and police vehicles. They used cars to drive toward the deputies in an attempt to scare them, prompting the deputies to fire rubber bullets, tear gas and flash-bang grenades at the vehicles. A sheriff's helicopter circled above throughout the evening, warning people they would be found and arrested and to leave the area after an unlawful assembly was declared, but the demonstrators continued, chanting and waving flags while some in the crowd continued to throw things at the deputies. It was nearing 9:30 p.m. when the line of deputies and vehicles began moving toward the crowd, forcing them to flee back to Atlantic Avenue and Alondra Boulevard. There deputies continued to fire tear gas and flash-bang grenades, sometimes at the direction of a gas station where protesters were standing. By midnight, demonstrators began to leave, ending a night of conflict between local and federal law enforcement officials and residents of Paramount. Federal authorities said some arrests had been made by agents. At least one video showed a woman being tackled to the ground earlier and being carried away. Other videos show two other people also being carried away by federal agents. 'Multiple arrests have already been made for obstructing our operations,' FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said on X. 'More are coming. We are pouring through the videos for more perpetrators. You bring chaos, and we'll bring handcuffs.'
