The family of a Tennessee factory worker who was killed during Hurricane Helene is suing the company and its CEO — claiming that the bosses sneaked out of the factory to escape catastrophic weather conditions while they ordered employees to stay.
Johnny Peterson, 55, was one of five workers at Impact Plastics who died in flooding that engulfed the factory in the rural town of Erwin on Sept. 27.
According to an explosive lawsuit filed by Peterson’s family on Monday in Tennessee state court, the facility’s managers denied employees’ pleas to leave work as the hurricane bore down on the area.
That’s despite the fact that workers began receiving notifications from the National Weather Service around 10 a.m. urging all who could to evacuate to higher ground, according to the suit.
At around 10:30 a.m., company managers told employees to move their cars because the parking lot was flooding, the suit claims.
An hour later at 11:35 a.m., senior management including Impact Plastics founder and CEO Gerald O’Connor had “stealthily exited the building,” according to court papers.
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