Last person missing from Hurricane Helene flooding found, body of Tennessee factory worker

ERWIN, Tenn. (AP) — Rescue workers in Tennessee said Friday they have recovered the body of the last person still missing after massive flooding from Hurricane Helene came across a plastic factory there.

Rosa Andrade, 29, was one of six workers who died after being unable to escape rising waters around Impact Plastics in Erwin, a small town in East Tennessee. Surviving workers said they were not allowed to leave until water flooded the factory parking lot and the power went out. Eleven people were swept away and only five were saved.

Unicoi County Search and Rescue Captain Andrew Harris said emergency responders discovered Andrade’s body Wednesday, more than a month after the Sept. 27 flood. the Nolichucky River.

The river was normally 61 centimeters deep and rose to a record height of 9.1 meters that day, with more than 5.3 million liters of water flowing downstream every second – twice as much as Niagara Falls.

Relatives of some of the victims have done so Impact Plastics sued and its owner, Gerald O’Connor. Among them is the family of Johnny Peterson, who managed to climb into the bed of a semi-trailer trying to flee the area and send text messages to his family before being swept away.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is investigating the allegations regarding Impact Plastics on the instructions of the local public prosecutor. The state Office of Workplace Safety has also opened its own investigation into the circumstances behind the deaths.

O’Connor has said that no workers were forced to stay on the job, and that they were evacuated for at least 45 minutes before the massive force of the flood hit the industrial park.

The workers who died were among the more than 200 people killed by Helene remote towns in the Appalachians. It was the deadliest hurricane to hit the US mainland since Katrina in 2005. The storm also left millions of people without power, cell service turned off and destroyed drinking water systems.

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