Impact Plastics in Erwin says some employees are dead or missing after flood

The company stated that when water began to cover the parking lot and the adjacent service road and the plant lost power, employees were dismissed to go home.

[chrisfishbaugh]

Told employees they would be fired if they left early. Ain't that some bull crap. They need to be sued by the families

[cardboardcrawlersrc]

This company needs to be held accountable if it’s true that they were forced to stay.

[jimromansr]

Wow.. that is a horrible way to put out that information. “Yeah some of our employees are dead or they’re missing”. That company president needs to be fired immediately.

[gnostic]

This also happened in Kentucky during a tornado when a tornado hit the town a couple of years ago, people were injured and killed when employees were not allowed to leave. There needs to be more regulations around forcing employees to stay on the job during a natural disaster.

[thenightman]

"Some of my wage slaves died, Dont worry we got plenty more".

[leohorishny]

Thanks for insisting the employees had to stay and work with a hurricane coming to the area. 🤬

[MWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWWWMMMWMWMWMMWM]

They worked them until the power went out. Then told them to clock out and swim home because they weren't going to pay for idle workers.

[bryanraughley]

This loss of life is egregious and preventable. The company had a duty to protect the employees with an emergency plan, including flash flood. What is mind boggling is the inbound storm and heavy rains were common knowledge at the time. The plant should have been closed, especially being located in a flood plain. Senseless.

[TnTAdventuresPhotography]

"Did not want to go on camera" scared they will lose their job. I've been a maintenance tech in this business for 30+ years, and Ill assure you that this company is LYING. They were forced to come in and made to stay too late. This is the norm, no matter what corporate HR says. The owners, plant manager, HR, supervisors, and leads need to be in handcuffs.

[WhoopsADaisy]

The owner has decided to try to frame this as a misjudgment on the part of the workers? This is not going to play well when the complete story comes out. Say more, boss man.

[maryefromky]

i think its particularly evil this corporation wouldn't let these people take the dang day off, given the floods and storms. people having to risk their lives to get back and forth to work, or risk getting fired. unbelievable. i hope the families sue for wrongful death for these guys.

[nobody]

Incredible, 6 people missing, but lets jump to a feel good story about the owner of a radio station. Just unbelievably calus and indifferent

Company should be held criminally liable!

[Jp-pwld]

All those little underling supervisors are scared to death of upsetting the big man and didn’t want to lose their positions. All the owner has to do is put out a statement about how shocked he was that his “leadership team” didn’t allow them to leave immediately.

[paulhill]

These People should face Criminal Charges!! They chose Money over Life.. So Sad..

[davidspencer]

Horrible reporting of false information. A little better journalism would have exposed the owners lies. Owning him won’t bring anyone back. Time to hold him, HR and management accountable. No shield laws. Try them and let them be held accountable.

[galndixie]

Their parking lot was already flooded, and they were still demanding the employees to come to work or be fired. The company needs to be sued, and the management personnel that gave that order needs to be sued personally. I'd even consider charges of negligent homicide. There is no excuse for this kind of behavior, and it needs to be seriously addressed.

[lyndareed]

They should be sued and they will be sued !!! I bet they wished they had sent them home now !😊

[donnanorton]

I hope these families sue the crap out of this country

[kwi]

Why were they not dismissed from work earlier?