“The findings are that employees were told to leave the plant at least 45 minutes before the gigantic force of the flood hit the industrial park,” Gerald O’Connor, founder, president and CEO of Impact Plastics, said in a video statement attached to the company’s Thursday statement. “To our knowledge, no one perished while on company property.”

The state is conducting criminal and workplace investigations into the deaths of three people at an East Tennessee plastics plant where workers say management forced them to remain at the factory as floodwater from Hurricane Helene rose to dangerous levels.

Tennessee state authorities are investigating the company behind a plastics factory where 11 workers were swept away in Hurricane Helene floodwaters. Two died, and five are still missing.