Unicoi County community continues searching for missing people after devastating floods

UNICOI COUNTY, Tenn. — Family and friends are still searching for 10 missing people in Unicoi County, according to the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency. For one husband, each passing day of the search is a new nightmare.

“She said goodbye to me, and to take care of the kids,” said Francisco Javier Guerrero, married to Rosa Maria Andrade Reynoso. “We feel destroyed because of what’s happening, specifically because we don’t have answers if she is one of the people that were located.”

He said Reynoso is still missing. Guerrero said the last the heard from her was around four days ago. She is an employee at an Impact Plastic factory in Erwin, and the company said Monday that some employees were either missing or dead.

It said employees were dismissed when water started to cover the factory parking lot and an adjacent service road, at around the time the factory lost power. The company said most employees left immediately, but “some remained on or near the premises for unknown reasons.” The company also said it was “devastated by the tragic loss of great employees.”

“She sent me a message around 10 a.m. that the lights went off,” he said.

He gathered with other community members at the Unicoi High School, hoping to find answers from first responders.

Jimmy Erwin, from the county’s emergency management agency, said it delivered three bodies and identified one. The agency is also helping facilitate a shelter at the school, offering community members like Guerrero shelter, aid and essentials.

“We are proud to be that source, for people who are struggling,” said one worker at the emergency center. “We have certainly been knocked down, but we’re picking ourselves up and dusting ourselves down.”