Grief and anger mix as Tennessee plastic plant survivors say permission to leave came too late
While some families confirmed the deaths of their loved ones, others were still waiting for news of the missing, who were swept away by Hurricane Helene floodwaters.
Bertha Mendoza made a final call to her husband of 38 years as raging Hurricane Helene floodwaters trapped her and others at a Tennessee plastics plant.
Workers have said they were allowed to leave when water was already swamping its parking lot in Erwin on Friday.
In a call to her husband, Elias Mendoza, Bertha, 56, said she loved him, her son Guillermo Mendoza told NBC News. She asked him to also tell her children she loved them.
“Those were her last words,” said a tearful Mendoza, 33, a minister at First Baptist Church of Erwin. He confirmed her body was found Saturday.
While authorities described their ongoing search-and-rescue operation at a news conference Tuesday, relatives of the missing workers from the Impact Plastics factory expressed frustration that officials had not been consulting families to help find and identify the missing and the dead.
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