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Tennessee OSHA opens investigation into plastics plant flood deaths
The Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration said today that it is investigating deaths of Impact Plastics workers during flooding in Erwin.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has also opened an investigation into allegations about Impact Plastics.
Some workers and their families have said the workers were allowed to leave only when water was already flooding the parking lot and should have been allowed to leave earlier or not been working at all that day.
Workers were swept away by the floodwaters, caused by what was then Tropical Storm Helene, which made landfall in Florida as a Category 4 hurricane.
Asked about the TBI investigation, Impact Plastics said that it will cooperate fully. "The company is conducting its own internal review of events and timelines of September 27th and will share the information once the review is complete," it said in a statement earlier today.
At Asheville’s Mission Hospital, workers describe the dire conditions after the storm
Facing what could be months without a steady water supply, the only solution for Mission Hospital was to dig a well.
The Asheville, North Carolina hospital was crippled after fast-moving Hurricane Helene dumped a record amount of rain in the region over the weekend.
“The entire water infrastructure to the area was obliterated,” said Hannah Drummond, a nurse at the hospital and the chief nurse representative for National Nurses United, the union that represents nurses at Mission Hospital.
The sewage system was so backed up after the storm, Drummond said, that it wasn’t possible to flush toilets.
Access to clean water was also wiped out. Patients were showing up at the hospital drenched in floodwater saturated with gasoline, chemicals and other unknown toxins.
Those people would normally be placed in showers to clean off, Drummond said. Not so after Helene barreled through, knocking out the basics of hygiene.
Biden approves more federal aid for four states
President Joe Biden has amended disaster declarations for Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina so that the federal government pays 100% of the cost of certain categories of help, the White House said today.
Biden “approved 100 percent Federal cost share for debris removal, first responders, search and rescue, shelters, mass feeding, and other emergency response activities” for the four states, its said in a statement.
N.C. parents and 2 kids escape flooded home through laundry room window
A family that includes two young boys swam to a laundry window to escape their flooded North Carolina house and waited on the roof after their block was inundated by Hurricane Helene.
Stephanie and John Zara escaped from their home near Asheville but had to leave their phones, identification and other belongings behind.
“It’s almost indescribable the panic we had,” Stephanie Zara said.
After the water started rising, they had trouble at first but finally were connected with 911 and asked what they should do. “And she says, ‘Get to higher ground,'" Stephanie Zara said.
They went first to the attic with their pets. But John Zara could sense the power of the rushing water below and felt they were in danger.
“He found that small window, by the grace of God, and we swam to it and got out,” Stephanie Zara said.
Photos taken by the couple showed the aftermath of the flooded laundry room from which they escaped and evidence of how high the water was.
A neighbor in a kayak eventually came by and helped them. They have seen flooding on their street before that came up to a front yard, but neither they nor their neighbors expected things to get that bad.
“I just think everyone on our street just never expected it to end up, you know, up to the gutters of our houses,” John Zara said.
They don't have flood insurance and have been told they aren't covered for the flood damage, John Zara said. Their business was also in the home. They're getting some emergency funds from FEMA, just for basic essentials, and are staying with family and friends in South Carolina.
"We have each other," Stephanie Zara said.
A North Carolina mountain town is wrecked by Hurricane Helene
Flattened homes, impassable roads, swamped fields, downed power lines, raw emotions.
Nearly a week after Hurricane Helene pummeled the small mountain town of Swannanoa, 20 miles east of Asheville, residents and business owners were trickling back today to see what was left and what could be salvaged.
Beverly and Baxter Eller barely escaped the floodwaters that reached eye level as they fled their home of 37 years and drove off in search of higher ground, uncertain whether they would ever return.
When they did, they found their home surrounded by a knee-high moat of muddy water, the garage lifted from its foundation and spun around.
North Carolina food bank CEO says community aid has been ‘ray of light’ in Helene relief
NBC News’ Antonia Hylton spoke with the CEO of Manna Food Bank, Claire Neal, about the impact Hurricane Helene has had on North Carolina and how people are coming together to help those affected by the massive storm.
FEMA doesn’t have enough funds to make it through hurricane season, Mayorkas says
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said today that FEMA doesn’t have enough funding to make it through the end of hurricane season.
Mayorkas discussed the devastating impacts from Hurricane Helene, which struck Florida and parts of the South last week, with reporters aboard Air Force One.
“We are meeting the immediate needs with the money that we have,” he said.
“We are expecting another hurricane hitting. We do not have the funds. FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the season,” he said.
He said the Department of Homeland Security “made a significant request of Congress with respect to stable funding for the Federal Emergency Management Administration, which should not be a political issue.”
The Atlantic hurricane season lasts from June 1 to Nov. 30.
Congress is not in session. Biden said this week that “I may have to request” that it return early to address the issue, though no decision had been made yet.
'Asheville is just not prepared for hurricanes,' resident says
Lorraine Ramsey and her husband said their neighborhood in Swannanoa, North Carolina, east of Asheville, has been “wiped out” by the hurricane that struck almost a week ago.
“We have no heat, we can’t wash our dishes, we have no phones, we can’t call our people — nothing,” Lorraine Ramsey said at a food bank in Asheville today. “We have nothing.”
Some good news is a gas station now has gas, which they can use to power a generator, because Lorraine Ramsey is on oxygen. Neighbors are trying to help one another.
Another woman getting help at the food bank, who gave her name as Dana, said that the storm’s aftermath has been hard but that “we’re a resilient bunch.”
“Asheville is just not prepared for hurricanes,” she said. “We’re very fortunate. We didn’t have any structural damage to the house, no trees fell on it, but Asheville is devastated.”
She said they need water, diapers and communication. “Communication is the hardest thing,” she said. “We just don’t know what’s going on. We don’t know where water is.”
The storm, which made landfall in Florida on Thursday, caused millions of people to lose power across the South.
At around 7 p.m. ET, around 319,000 customers were without power in the state, according to PowerOutage.us, including more than 92,500 homes and businesses in Buncombe County, where Asheville is located.
'This is a multibillion-dollar, multiyear recovery,' Mayorkas says
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the vast devastation left by Hurricane Helene will require a recovery that lasts years and will cost billions of dollars.
“This is a multibillion-dollar, multiyear recovery,” Mayorkas told reporters on Air Force One today, according to a White House transcript of the remarks.
“We have towns that have disappeared, literally,” he said.
Deaths from Hurricane Helene now at 183
The number of deaths from Hurricane Helene or the aftermath of the Category 4 storm is now at least 183, according to an NBC News count of official reports.
Earlier today, it was 179.
The number of known deaths in Buncombe County, North Carolina, grew from 57 to 61, officials said at a news conference. More than 90 people have died in the state.