ERWIN, Tenn. — State authorities are investigating what happened at an Erwin plastics factory during Friday's catastrophic flooding. Employees on the job that day said the company lied about the circumstances behind why employees were swept when the Nolichucky River flooded over.
Impact Plastics officials said several of their employees died after the river near the business along the James H. Quillen Parkway flooded over into the plant's parking lot.
The company said most employees left immediately, but some "remained on or near the premises for unknown reasons." Multiple employees who survived the deadly flooding told 10News the plant and the company's statements weren't accurate.
Robert Jarvis said last Friday started off as a normal day. He went to his job at Impact Plastics and got an emergency flooding alert on his phone at around 10 a.m. from authorities that said it wasn't safe to stay in the area and people needed to leave.
He said power went out at the plant and then he heard the parking lot was flooded. He asked if he could go home, and according to him, someone at Impact Plastics said they had to wait to hear from the business owner to determine if people could leave.
By then, he said it was too late.
10News spoke to other employees and families of missing co-workers this week. One said the company told workers to leave about 15 minutes before the river flooding began rising up to the plant and forced them to try to find higher ground. One of Jarvis' coworkers, Jacob Ingram, said he and others nearly died after being swept away.
Ingram was among the ones who said they survived after clinging to a truck for hours and using rolls of plastic gas piping as a floating device.
Jarvis said Impact Plastics failed him and his coworkers as an employer.
"Why would you make us stay there?" he said in an interview Wednesday. "Why would you keep us there if you knew it was going to bad? If you were monitoring it why were we still there then?"
The general manager of a neighboring business near Impact Plastics, Ron Kell, and one of his employees, Erick Castillon, helped Jarvis get out of the flooded parking lot.
10News asked a spokesperson from the company for an on-camera interview. That person didn't respond to the request. They instead said the company is investigating what happened last week at the plant.
Jarvis said the statement the company put out about what happened to him and his coworkers last week was a lie.
"The statement is a lie," Jarvis said. "They told us we had to stay there until we talked to the owner."
He said the flooding was traumatic and he has one image of a coworker that keeps playing over and over in his mind.
"I see Rosa," he said. "I see her smiling. I see her smiling at me because she smiled at me right before it all happened."
Rosa Maria Andrade Reynoso was among the missing coworkers. She was still missing as of Wednesday.
On Wednesday, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said it opened an investigation into the incident at the request of Unicoi County District Attorney General Steve Finney.
"Specifically, I asked that they review the occurrences of Friday, September 27, 2024, to identify any potential criminal violations," Finney said.
A representative for Impact Plastics said on Wednesday the TBI hasn't yet reached out to the company, but will fully cooperate with their investigation.