Only a parking lot and two roads – South Industrial Drive and James H. Quillen Parkway – separate Impact Plastics from the river.
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A group of employees from Erwin’s Impact Plastics clung to spools of flexible yellow plastic pipes on the back of a semitruck for hours Sept. 27 waiting for help as the swollen Nolichucky River raged around them.
But the truck tipped over and at least seven people were swept away by the floodwaters.
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As the waters rose outside, managers wouldn’t let employees leave, he said. Instead, managers told people to move their cars away from the rising water. Ingram moved his two separate times because the water wouldn’t stop rising.
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The company, via a statement, confirmed six employees and a contractor are missing but denied allegations that management forced anyone to continue working as waters rose outside. Further, the statement said, while most employees left immediately, some remained on or near the premises. It reiterated management and assistants were the last to exit the building.
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[E]mployees were fighting their way through waist-deep water in the parking lot when a semitruck driver from PolyPipe USA, which operates next door, called them over and helped them get onto the back of his open-bed truck, packed full of the large yellow flexible gas pipes.
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In their panic, the group called 911 and were told rescuers would be there in 15-20 minutes.
But help was a long way away.
“We called the police station God knows how many times,” Ingram said. “For two or three hours we were on the back of the trailer … it was because the hospital was about to collapse, and I understand that, but they shouldn’t have told us someone was on the way (when they weren’t).”
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Suddenly, a piece of debris hit the truck. The jolt knocked a woman into the rapids, Ingram said.
Soon after, a second piece of debris smashed into the truck and another woman fell into the water and was swept away, he said.
The truck was hit again, but this time the piece of debris was much bigger, the impact much harder, and the the truck flipped. Ingram crammed his hands under a plastic band around the yellow pipes.
It saved his life.
“I wedged my hands into it, and it took everything I had to hang on,” he said. “I seen them (the pipes) floating down river, so that’s what gave us the idea. We knew it was floating.”
Roughly half a mile from the factory, Ingram and four other employees came to rest atop a pile of debris.
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After an hour or so passed, a rescue helicopter from the Tennessee National Guard plucked them from danger.
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Ingram told Knox News that [Rosa Maria Andrade] Reynoso was one of the employees who climbed onto the flatbed with him.
Reynoso was in touch with her husband throughout the morning and sent videos showing water rising up to her ankles, Guerro said. In one of her last messages, she told him the water had gotten so high she wasn’t sure if she would be able to get out.
She told him to take care of the kids, he said.
He tried to get to his wife, but by the time he made near the factory, roads were closed. He tried unsuccessfully to get to the factory by several routes. At the time, there were helicopters circulating in Erwin to rescue those trapped atop Unicoi County Hospital. Every time he saw a helicopter, he hoped she would be on it.
“She never came, she never came,” he said.
Knox News
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