Mexican immigrant families plagued by grief, questions after plant workers swept away by Helene

ERWIN, Tenn. (AP) — With shaking hands, Daniel Delgado kissed a photo of his wife, Monica Hernandez, before lighting a candle in a supermarket parking lot. Family members hugged pictures printed on poster board, some collapsing into them in tears as search helicopters flew overhead in the direction of the hills.

Days after six workers at a plastics factory disappeared under surging floodwaters caused by Hurricane Helene, loved ones and supporters have been gathering for vigils in front of churches, a high school and a grocery store to honor them.

Most nights, prayers in Spanish are spoken over rosary beads: “Mary, mother of Jesus, intercede and help us find them.”

The storm, which claimed the lives of at least 230 people across six states, quickly overwhelmed Erwin, an Appalachian town of around 6,000, on Sept. 27 and resulted in more than 50 people being rescued by helicopter from the roof of a submerged hospital.

The scar it left behind has been especially devastating within the small Latino community that makes up a disproportionate number of workers at the factory: Four of the six workers swept away were Mexican American.

Two state investigations have been launched into Impact Plastics and whether the company should have done more to protect workers as the danger grew.

The families of those lost say they still can’t comprehend the ferocity of the storm —or why their loved ones didn’t get out of the factory earlier to avoid the raging floodwaters.

“We ask: Why? Why did she go to work? Why did she stay?” Hernandez’s sister Guadalupe Hernandez-Corona said, through a translator, after a Thursday night vigil. “We’re all still wondering.”

Impact Plastics President Gerald O’Connor has said no employees were forced to keep working and they were evacuated at least 45 minutes before the massive force of the flood hit the industrial park.

“There was time to escape,” he said in a video statement, adding that he was among the last to leave the plant after ensuring everyone was out. The National Guard rescued five employees by helicopter.

But surviving workers say the evacuation began too late. Some clung to pipes on truck flatbeds for up to six hours while making frantic 911 calls and saying goodbyes to loved ones. Some saw coworkers carried off by the current.

Emergency dispatchers said resources were spread thin as a rescue operation was underway over a mile downriver at Unicoi County Hospital.

Normally running 2 feet (about 60 centimeters) deep, the Nolichucky River rose to a record 30 feet (9.1 meters) that day, running at more than 1.4 million gallons (5.3 million liters) per second, which is twice as much as Niagara Falls.

The plastics plant was open, even as local schools shuttered. Robert Jarvis, who began his shift at 7 a.m., said employees continued to work while receiving phone alerts about possible flooding. Many stayed even after management asked them to move cars because 6 inches of water had accumulated in the parking lot.

Employees were finally told to evacuate after the power went out and when the water was about a foot (30 centimeters) high, he said. Jarvis said he survived only because he was pulled into the bed of someone's lifted truck, which labored up an all-terrain road for three hours.

Jarvis said the six lost coworkers were “like family” and he feels a responsibility to them to share his experience.

“They shouldn’t have been at work that day,” he said. "None of us should have.”

Annabel Andrade, whose cousin's daughter Rosy Reynoso is still missing, said evacuation routes were insufficient. And O'Connor's statement angered her: “He left safely. Why was he able to save himself and leave these other employees stranded?”

Alma Vazquez, a Catholic Charities case manager who met some of the lost workers decades ago after she first made her home in Erwin at a migrant farm camp, said the deaths were “completely preventable.”

“People didn’t have to die at the place where they work,” she said.

Many of the victims had deep ties to Erwin. It is more than 90% white with around about 8% of the population, around 500 people, identifying as Hispanic in 2022 up from 3.8% a decade earlier, according to Census Bureau figures.

Lidia Verdugo, Bertha Mendoza and Hernandez, all Mexican Americans, lived in the community for two decades. Hernandez began working at Impact Plastics shortly after arriving, her sister said.

The most recent arrival to Erwin, eight years ago, was 29-year-old Rosy Reynoso. She and her husband had just moved into their own apartment after living with her mother, whom she still visited daily. Her 10-year-old son is in Mexico, and she was working to bring him here, Andrade said.

Two white plastics workers, Sibrina Barnett and Johnny Peterson, were also swept away.

There has been frustration in the Hispanic community over the fact that state officials did not immediately send translators to assist survivors of the disaster, and families became more upset when workers answering phone lines for missing persons tips spoke only English.

When a Tennessee Emergency Management Agency director was asked why these resources weren't available until over a day into the search, he said they hadn’t been aware of the size of the Spanish-speaking population in the area.

“For them, it was very heartbreaking to hear that,” said Ana Gutierrez, an organizer with the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition who has been assisting families.

Gutierrez also said families felt their plight had been overshadowed by the hospital rescue, which made news the day it happened while the plant workers did not.

Some comfort has been found at nightly vigils, where people prayed in both Spanish and English and lit candles as the names of the workers were read.

Erwin Mayor Glenn White said he was moved to see the crowd, a mix of Hispanic and white residents, coming together in solidarity and grief.

“We are one people. Our country's motto says that, ‘Out of many, come one,’” White said.

At Saint Michael The Archangel, where the vast majority of the 225 parishioners are Hispanic, families gather to comfort each other and eat Mexican pozole as donations of water, food and other supplies were delivered.

Andrade's family was one of the first Hispanic families to settle in Erwin in the 1980s. When her 19-year-old son died in 2017, she became the first in the community to lay a family member to rest here, in the cemetery next to Saint Michael, instead of sending the body back to Mexico for burial.

Reynoso's husband, who remains hopeful her body will be found, initially planned to inter her in Mexico but later decided her body, if found, will stay in Tennessee. “You’ve made a life here — your family’s going to be here,” Andrade told him. “This is your home.”

Engraved Spanish prayers adorn the cemetery's tombstones, which Andrade sees as a symbol of the life Hispanic immigrants have made in America.

“It's a way to keep them with us,” she said.

Associated Press journalists Kimberlee Kruesi in Nashville, Tennessee, and Ben Finley in Norfolk, Virginia, contributed to this report.

Mourners hold candles and stand silently during a vigil for victims of the Impact Plastics tragedy in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Erwin, Tenn., on Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Children talk and play games inside St. Michael the Archangel Catholic church in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in Erwin, Tenn. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Alexandra Reynoso, right, hugs her little sister, Sofia Reynosa, 5, as others grab a bite to eat in the kitchen of St. Michael the Archangel Catholic church in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in Erwin, Tenn. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Daniel Delgado reaches to touch a photo of his wife, Monica Hernandez, who died at Impact Plastics during flooding caused by Hurricane Helene, at a vigil for victims of the tragedy in Erwin, Tenn., on Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Anabel Andrade speaks about the loss of life at Impact Plastics as a result of flooding during Hurricane Helene Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in Erwin, Tenn. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

A child reaches for a drawing on a plate he completed inside St. Michael the Archangel Catholic church in Erwin, Tenn., on Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Adults gather at a table for a meal as life goes on around them inside St. Michael the Archangel Catholic church in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in Erwin, Tenn. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition worker Ana Gutierrez, lights a candle during a vigil for victims of the Impact Plastics tragedy in the days after Hurricane Helene in Erwin, Tenn., on Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Lorena Reynoso pauses as she speaks about the victims of the Impact Plastics tragedy in the days after Hurricane Helene in Erwin, Tenn., on Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Personnel from Urban Search and Rescue Utah Task Force 1 search for victims of the Impact Plastics tragedy in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in Erwin, Tenn. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Volunteers unload cases of water and other donated supplies outside St. Michael the Archangel Catholic church in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Erwin, Tenn., on Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Fernando Ruiz stands silently as he holds a photo of his mother, Lidia Verdugo, who went missing during the flooding caused by Hurricane Helene at Impact Plastics, reminding those attending a press conference she still hadn't been found, in Erwin, Tenn., on Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Personnel from Urban Search and Rescue Utah Task Force 1 continue to search for victims of the Impact Plastics tragedy in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in Erwin, Tenn. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Daniel Delgado kneels in front of a photo of his wife, Monica Hernandez, who died at Impact Plastics during flooding caused by Hurricane Helene, while being comforted by his sister-in-law, Guadalupe Hernandez-Corona, during a vigil for victims of the tragedy in Erwin, Tenn., on Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Mourners gather during a vigil for victims of the Impact Plastics tragedy as a helicopter continues search and rescue work over the disaster site in the distance in the days after Hurricane Helene in Erwin, Tenn., on Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Damage caused by flooding from Hurricane Helene is seen around Impact Plastics in Erwin, Tenn., on Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Daniel Delgado, top, is comforted by his 16-year-old son Angel Delgado, right, as he mourns the loss of his wife and Angel's mother, Monica Hernandez, who died at Impact Plastics during flooding caused by Hurricane Helene in Erwin, Tenn., on Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden secured the 235th judicial confirmation of his presidency Friday, an accomplishment that exceeds his predecessor's total by one after Democrats put extra emphasis on the federal courts following Donald Trump's far-reaching first term, when he filled three seats on the Supreme Court.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., teed up votes Friday on two California district judges, and they will be the last judicial confirmations this year before Congress adjourns and makes way for a new, Republican-led Senate.

The confirmation of Serena Raquel Murillo to be a district judge for the Central District of California broke Trump's mark. The tally also marks the largest number of confirmations in a single term since Jimmy Carter administration. Come next year, Republicans will look to boost Trump's already considerable influence on the makeup of the federal judiciary in his second term.

Biden and Senate Democrats placed particular focus on adding women, minorities and public defenders to the judicial rank. About two-thirds of Biden's appointees are women and a solid majority of appointees are people of color. The most notable appointee was Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first African American woman to serve on the nation's highest court.

“When I ran for President, I promised to build a bench that looks like America and reflects the promise of our nation. And I’m proud I kept my commitment to bolstering confidence in judicial decision-making and outcomes,” Biden said in a statement.

Sen. Dick Durbin, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that prior to the Democrats' efforts, the number of women on the bench had been diminished, and it was made up overwhelmingly of white males.

“We consciously moved forward to bring more women to the bench, and believe me, we had a great talent pool to work with," Durbin said. "So I think it’ll enhance the image of the court and its work product to bring these new judges on.”

Biden also placed an emphasis on bringing more civil rights lawyers, public defenders and labor rights lawyers to expand the professional backgrounds of the federal judiciary. More than 45 appointees are public defenders and more than two dozen served as civil rights lawyers.

While Biden did get more district judges confirmed than Trump, he had fewer higher-tier circuit court appointments than Trump — 45 compared to 54 for Trump. And he got one Supreme Court appointment compared with three for Trump. Republicans, much to Democrats' frustration, filled Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's seat on the court the week before the 2020 presidential election. Ginsburg had passed away in September.

Democrats also faced the challenge of confirming nominees during two years of a 50-50 Senate. Rarely a week went by in the current Congress when Schumer did not tee up votes on judicial confirmations as liberal groups urged Democrats to show the same kind of urgency on judges that Republicans exhibited under Trump.

Some Senate Republicans were harshly critical of Biden's choices. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said talk of diversity did not extend to the views of the nominees.

"One of the consequences of the age of Trump is that it drove Democrats insane and it drove them to the extreme left, so they put people on the bench who were selected because they were extreme partisans,” Cruz said.

Liberal-leaning advocacy groups said they are delighted with the number of judges Democrats secured, but even more so with the quality of the nominees. They said diversity in personal and professional backgrounds improves judicial decision-making, helps build public trust and inspires people from all walks of life to pursue legal careers.

“For our federal judiciary to actually deliver equal justice for all, it really has to be for all, and that is one reason why we certainly applaud this administration for prioritizing both professional but also demographic diversity,” said Lena Zwarensteyn, senior director of the fair courts program at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and the next chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Democrats showed newfound resolve on judicial confirmations.

“They learned a lesson from the first Trump administration,” Grassley said. “Paying attention to the number of judges you get and the type of judges you put on the court is worth it.”

Part of the urgency from Democrats came as they watched the nation's highest court overturn abortion protections, eliminate affirmative action in higher education and weaken the federal government's ability to protect the environment, public health and workplace safety through regulations. The cases showed that the balance of power in Washington extends to the judicial branch.

Schumer was jubilant after the vote, saying that one out of four active judges has been appointed under Biden. He said that when it came to judicial nominees, Democrats “cast a wider net” than what he referred to as a “privileged pool.”

“I'm very proud of this milestone, not because the number alone, but because of what the number means,” Schumer said. “It means our bench is now far more balanced in its experiences, expertise and qualifications than four years ago."

Trump will inherit nearly three dozen judicial vacancies, but that number is expected to rise because of Republican-appointed judges who held off on retirement in hopes that a Republican would return to office and pick their replacements.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., acknowledged that the sense of accomplishment for Democrats is muted somewhat knowing that Trump will have another term to continue shaping the federal judiciary.

“I’m not ready to uncork the champagne just because we’ve done some really good work over the last four years," Blumenthal said. "We need to be prepared to work, hope for the best and try to defeat nominees who are simply unqualified. We have our work cut out for us. The prospects ahead are sobering.”

Grassley promised that he'll work to best Biden's number.

“Let me assure you, by January 20th of 2029, Trump will be bragging about getting 240 judges," Grassley said.

President Joe Biden arrives to speak at the Department of Labor in Washington, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)