KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan (AP) — A slow-moving typhoon approaching Taiwan led to school and office closures for a third consecutive day Thursday, with authorities asking people to stay indoors.
Typhoon Krathon, packing fierce winds and torrential rainfall, was around 50 kilometers (31 miles) southwest of the major port city of Kaohsiung on Thursday morning, traveling northeastward at a speed of 4 kph (2.5 mph), according to the island’s Central Weather Administration.
It was expected to make landfall later Thursday on Taiwan’s densely populated west coast. The typhoon, packing maximum sustained winds near the center of 137 kph (85 mph) and gusts of 173 kph (107 mph), is expected to continue to weaken as it moves inland.
The typhoon has brought Kaohsiung, a city of 2.7 million people, to a standstill for the past three days. Stores and restaurants have been shuttered, and residents kept away from markets and harbors. All domestic flights have been grounded for the past two days.
Storms attributed to Krathon injured more than 100 people in southern and southeastern areas of the island, according to Taiwan’s emergency response agency. Two people died — one after driving into fallen rocks on the road in the southeastern Taitung county, and the other while trimming tree branches in the city of Hualien. Two others remained missing.
Thousands were evacuated from areas vulnerable to mudslides and landslides. Almost 40,000 troops were on standby to help with rescue efforts.
Mountainous areas in the island’s south have seen up to 150 centimeters (4.9 feet) of rain over the past five days.
Typhoons rarely hit Taiwan’s west coast, affecting instead the mountainous, eastern side of the island.
The typhoon on Monday lashed northern Philippine islands, where four people were killed and at least 5,000 were displaced, officials said.
A woman struggles with winds generated by Typhoon Krathon in Kaohsiung, Southern Taiwan, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
A woman struggles with winds generated by Typhoon Krathon in Kaohsiung, Southern Taiwan, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
A woman struggles with winds generated by Typhoon Krathon in Kaohsiung, Southern Taiwan, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee state authorities said Wednesday they were investigating the company that owns a plastics factory where 11 workers were swept away by cataclysmic flooding unleashed by Hurricane Helene.
As the nearby Nolichucky River swelled from rainfall, employees in the Impact Plastics factory in Erwin, a small community in rural Tennessee, kept working. Several asserted that they weren’t allowed to leave in time to avoid the storm’s impact. It wasn’t until water flooded into the parking lot and the power went out that the plant shut down and sent workers home.
Several never made it.
The raging waters swept 11 people away, and only five were rescued. Two of them are confirmed dead and are part of a toll across six states that has surpassed 180. Four others from the factory are still missing since they were washed away Friday in Erwin, where dozens of people were also rescued off the roof of a hospital.
Tennessee Bureau of Investigation spokesperson Leslie Earhart said Wednesday that the agency is investigating allegations involving Impact Plastics at the direction of the local prosecutor.
District Attorney Steven R. Finney said in a statement that he asked the bureau to look into any potential criminal violations related to the “occurrences” on Friday.
“Impact Plastics has not been contacted by the TBI yet but will fully cooperate with their investigation,” said the company's spokesperson, Tony Treadway. He said the company is preparing an internal review, which it will release to the public.
Secondary to the Bureau of Investigation, the state's workplace safety office opened its own probe Wednesday into the circumstances behind the deaths. While announcing the investigation, the Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration noted that companies have eight hours to report a workplace death, and it hadn't yet received a fatality report from Impact Plastics as of Wednesday evening.
Some workers managed to drive away from the plant, while others got caught on a clogged road where water rose high enough to sweep vehicles away. Videos show the brown floodwaters covering the nearby highway and lapping at the doors of Impact Plastics.
Jacob Ingram, a mold changer at the factory, filmed himself and four others waiting for rescue as bobbing vehicles floated by. He later posted the videos on Facebook with the caption, “Just wanna say im lucky to be alive.” Videos of their helicopter rescue were posted on social media later Saturday.
In one video, Ingram looks down at the camera, a green Tennessee National Guard helicopter hovering above him, hoisting one of the other survivors. In another, a soldier rigs the next evacuee in a harness.
Impact Plastics said in a statement Monday that it “continued to monitor weather conditions” Friday and that managers dismissed employees “when water began to cover the parking lot and the adjacent service road, and the plant lost power.”
In interviews with local news outlets, two of the workers who made it out of the facility disputed those claims. One told News 5 WCYB that employees were made to wait until it was “too late.” Another, Ingram made a similar statement to the Knoxville News Sentinel.
“They should’ve evacuated when we got the flash flood warnings, and when they saw the parking lot,” Ingram said. “We asked them if we should evacuate, and they told us not yet, it wasn’t bad enough.”
Worker Robert Jarvis told News 5 WCYB that the company should have let them leave earlier.
Jarvis said he tried to drive away in his car, but the water on the main road got too high, and only off-road vehicles were finding ways out of the flood zone.
“The water was coming up,” he said. “A guy in a 4x4 came, picked a bunch of us up and saved our lives, or we’d have been dead, too.”
The 11 workers found temporary respite on the back of a truck driven by a passerby, but it soon tipped over after debris hit it, Ingram said.
Ingram said he survived by grabbing onto plastic pipes that were on the truck. He said he and four others floated for about half a mile (about 800 meters) before they found safety on a sturdy pile of debris.
Ingram’s father, Michael Graham, said Ingram was resting at home Wednesday after getting treated for cuts and lung problems and that his phone wasn’t working anymore. He said Ingram had called him from the truck, afraid for his life.
“We got a call, Jacob saying, ‘I’m stuck at work, we’re on the back of a semitruck. We climbed as high as we can. Just tell everybody I love them if I don’t make it out again,’” Graham said.
He welcomed the criminal investigation into the company, saying accountability could save lives in the future.
“It does seem ridiculous to me that this plant wasn’t evacuated,” Graham said.
“We are devastated by the tragic loss of great employees,” Impact Plastics founder Gerald O’Connor said in the statement Monday. “Those who are missing or deceased, and their families are in our thoughts and prayers.”
The two confirmed dead at the Tennessee plastics factory are Mexican citizens, said Lisa Sherman-Nikolaus, executive director at the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition. She said many of the victims’ families have started online fundraisers to cover funeral costs and other expenses.
Bertha Mendoza was with her sister when the flooding started, but they got separated, according to a eulogy on her GoFundMe page authored by her daughter-in-law, who declined an interview request.
“She was loved dearly by her family, community, her church family, and co-workers,” the eulogy read.
Attanasio reported from New York. AP journalists Rhonda Shafner and Beatrice Dupuy contributed from New York.
In this image made from a video provided by NewsNation, people can be seen on the roof of the Unicoi County Hospital in Erwin, Tenn., on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (NewsNation via AP)
This image taken from video from the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency shows a helicopter on the roof of Unicoi County Hospital in Erwin, Tenn., where patients and staff had to be rescued from after the Nolichucky River flooded and surrounded the building from Hurricane Helene, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (Tennessee Emergency Management Agency via AP)
An aerial view of flood-damaged Unicoi County Hospital in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, in Erwin, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
An aerial view of flood-damaged Unicoi County Hospital in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, in Erwin, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
An aerial view of flood damage in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, in Erwin, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
An aerial view of flood damage in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, in Erwin, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
