11 Tennessee factory workers swept away in Helene floodwaters, company responds to evacuation decision [Video]

Employees forced to work at a Tennessee plastics factory are recounting the day historic flooding took over their parking lot and caused the power to go out. Once the plant shut down, and they were sent home, several of the workers did not make it.

Floodwaters swept 11 people away, and only five were rescued. Two of them are confirmed dead and part of the death toll across the affected states that passed 150 Tuesday, The Associated Press reported.

“We were all talking to the supervisors and telling everybody, ‘Look, we don’t need to be here,'” Impact Plastic employee Zinna Adkins told WJHL. “Our phone alerts were saying we need to flee the areas. And they never said anything about it. And supervisors didn’t tell us that we could go.”

A statement from management of the company founded in 1987 and the factory located in Erwin sent to Fox News Digital said that Impact Plastics “expressed sympathy for the missing and deceased employees and …