I dug a road into the railroad bank. … I made everybody hit their gas and don’t stop,” said Ron Kell, manager of the Old Hickory Buildings factory.

The company came under fire after allegations circulated that employees were told they would be penalized for leaving work.

During the service, family members of the lost Impact Plastic employees honored their loved ones by lighting a candle and holding their portrait.

Robert Jarvis, an employee of Tennessee's Impact Plastics who survived being swept up in Helene's floodwaters, said "it was just too late" once management told them to leave. WCYB's Yannia Nordelo reports.

Guillermo Mendoza can still remember the last phone call he received from his mother, Bertha, in the morning hours of Sept. 27. Mendoza said his mother told him she loved him and said, “It looks like it’s getting bad weather.