Battered community mourns plastics factory workers swept away by Helene in Tennessee

A battered community in eastern Tennessee gathered in sorrow to light candles and say prayers for those lost in the floods in Erwin, where raging flood waters claimed the lives of factory employees who couldn't hold on as the swollen Nolichucky River thundered around them.

More than a hundred people turned a Food City parking lot into a vigil honoring the six Impact Plastics employees who were swept away Sept. 27 by Helene as the deadly storm marched across the Southeast.

Three of those employees are still missing, The Knoxville News Sentinel, known as Knox News - part of the USA TODAY Network - confirmed. Three are dead. All had clung to the back of a flatbed semitruck in the business parking lot as the waters rose.

The vigil, organized by the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, reflected a community in mourning. Families of the Impact Plastics employees were joined by Erwin Mayor Glenn White, Ben Booher, the executive director of the Unicoi County Care and Share Ministry, and the St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Parish Rev. Tom Charters. A translator was present so the service was in both English and Spanish.

"When all the media is gone, the state officials are gone and the federal government is gone, we're all left here together," White said. "We are going to prove to our region, to our state and to our nation, how strong a people we are."

Employees of the company have alleged Impact Plastics managers didn’t allow workers to leave the facility even as warnings were issued and floodwaters from the nearby Nolichucky River unleashed with the force of a once in 5,000 year storm. The company has denied the allegations.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has opened an investigation into Impact Plastics.

The dead and the missing at Impact Plastics

During the service, family members of the lost employees honored them by lighting candles and cradling portraits of their loved ones.

Bertha Mendoza, 56, fell off the truck she and others had climbed atop near the plant, seeking refuge, and vanished into the flood, said Jacob Ingram, another employee on the truck.

"She was caught in the devastation from the over flow in Nolichucky and separated from her sister while trying to stay afloat on the rushing current," a GoFundMe page dedicated to her memory says. Mendoza’s son Guillermo confirmed her death to Knox News. Her body was found and identified on Sept. 29.

Monica Hernandez's family learned of her death from Unicoi County Emergency Management officials Tuesday, according to the immigrants rights coalition.

Hernandez is survived by her husband, Daniel Delgado, and her three children, Angel, Carlos and Felix, according to GoFundMe page.

"This sudden and unexpected loss has been devastating to us, her family and loved ones," the GoFundMe page, which raised more than $25,000 by Friday, said.

Johnny Peterson, 55, also confirmed dead, had been clinging to the truck and was swept away, according to Ingram. Peterson, who had worked at Impact Plastics for more than 35 years, is survived by four children and has a grandchild on the way.

"Johnny was famous for telling his hilarious stories," his obituary says. "Stories from his high school years and early childhood playing with all his cousins. You would see him telling these stories with a Marlboro Red in one hand, a Dr. Enuff in the other hand and chewing on a Mento."

Rosa Maria Andrade Reynoso was still missing as of Oct. 1. Her husband, Francesco Guerrero, told Knox News through a translator that she had been in communication with him throughout the morning of the storm and said she wasn’t sure if she could get out. She told him to take care of their kids, he said.

Family members also identified Lydia Verdugo as among the missing.

Another woman, Sibrina Barnett, has been identified as missing. Her name was listed at the vigil for families Oct. 3. She worked as a janitor at Impact Plastics, according to Ingram, who also said Barnett was one of the employees stuck on the truck.

Contributing: Donovan Slack, USA TODAY

Tyler Whetstone is an investigative reporter focused on accountability journalism. Connect with Tyler by emailing him at tyler.whetstone@knoxnews.com. Follow him on X @tyler_whetstone.