Nelson Nunez and Jessica E. Martinez, Guest columnists
This article appeared in the Knoxville News Sentinel

Robert Jarvis wants answers. “Why’d you make us work that day?” he asks. “Why?”

With five workers dead and one still missing since Hurricane Helene struck on Sept. 27, many of us in Tennessee and around the country also want to know what went wrong that day – and if we can prevent it from happening again.

Jarvis is one of the workers who survived the preventable catastrophe that took place at Impact Plastics in Erwin, Tennessee, on Sept. 27. As rising floodwaters from Hurricane Helene battered East Tennessee that Friday, businesses, schools and hospitals closed their doors.

But as Knox News has reported, Impact Plastics, right next to the Nolichucky River, remained open. As the company parking lot began to flood and water seeped into the building, workers were allowed out to move their cars. But they were not dismissed and allowed to go home.

By the time the factory finally closed an hour or more later – the exact time and circumstances are in dispute – it was too late. Jarvis escaped in a four-by-four pickup, but six of his co-workers, attempting to flee by clinging to the back of a flatbed truck, were not as fortunate. Debris struck the vehicle, sending them into the floodwaters.

Five workers dead, one still missing

The deceased workers – Bertha Mendoza, Monica Hernandez, Lidia Verdugo, Johnny Peterson and Sabrina Barnett – represent five of the 16 hurricane deaths reported in East Tennessee. Rosa Maria Andrade Reynoso, also an Impact Plastics worker, is still missing.

On Oct. 14, Alexa Peterson, Jonny Peterson’s oldest daughter, filed a $25 million wrongful-death lawsuit against Impact Plastics. The company, the lawsuit states, “chose greed over the safety of its workers. The deaths caused by Hurricane Helene’s flooding were not just tragic – they were entirely preventable.”

Impact Plastics CEO Gerald O’Connor denies that the company knowingly put anyone in harm’s way. “There was time to escape" when employees were released, he says.

Surviving employees like Robert Jarvis tell a different story. The answers that he and many others are looking for are now the subject of multiple investigations. In addition to the lawsuit filed by the Peterson family, two state agencies – the Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation – are examining the case.

Here is what we know so far:

• Nearby employers in the same industrial park released their employees much earlier than Impact Plastics, and suffered no fatalities.
• The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning at 9:14 a.m. on Sept. 27, well before employees at Impact Plastics were allowed to leave their jobs.
• There is only one road in and one road out of the industrial park where Impact Plastics is located, a potential violation of engineering safety standards.

Climate change drives need for safety measures

Federal law mandates that every employer provide a workplace free from “recognized hazards.” As climate change causes rising temperatures and more frequent and severe hurricanes, tornadoes and other extreme weather events, employers must proactively implement measures that reduce risk and ensure worker safety.

For employers who wish to avoid becoming the next Impact Plastics, the first step is crystal clear: Talk to your workers. Workers know their workplace, they know where the hazards are, and they know how to reduce or eliminate them.

An effective emergency preparedness plan must be centered on the ideas and experience of employees. It should include measures for safe entry and exit protocols, an early warning and monitoring system, and effective communication strategies during an emergency, ensuring timely information is accessible in a language understood by all workers.

Alexa Peterson’s lawsuit states that Impact Plastics “had no EAP [Emergency Action Plan] to safely evacuate or help its employees in the event of an emergency.” A statement from the company claims that “[w]ritten evacuation plans were posted in conspicuous areas of the plant many months prior” to the tragic events of Sept. 27.

If there was an emergency plan, it failed miserably, resulting in the loss of at least five lives, and almost certainly a sixth. With increasingly dangerous storms on the horizon, employers must waste no time in consulting with workers to formulate plans for impending disasters. Employers must also set aside time, on the clock, to make sure that workers are aware of such plans and have the resources they need to respond to an emergency.

The cost of negligence is simply unacceptable.

Nelson Nuñez is community organizer at Workers’ Dignity in Nashville and a member of the Workers’ Leadership Academy at the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH). Jessica E. Martinez is executive director of National COSH.