The families of those who died during Hurricane Helene claim they received a questionable condolence gift from the factory their relatives used to work for.

The hurricane hit parts of the US in September, and ended up claiming the lives of over 200 people.

Six of the people who died in the extreme weather incident last year were employees of Tennessee plastic factory, Impact Plastics.

Staffers at the factory who were working during the hurricane claim they were told they could not leave their place at work as water started to swamp the parking lot. However, Impact Plastics denied this was the case.

Eventually Nolichucky River started to overflow, despite the dam remaining intact.

At the height of flooding was 1.3 million gallons per second, the Tennessee Valley Authority said in data published in November.

Parts of Impact Plastics’ factory was swept away in the flooding — some of its employees included.

Six people ended up losing their lives in the incident, and their families have since argued that the deceased were likely to have survived the flooding had they been allowed to leave work sooner.

In a press release which was issued back in September, Impact Plastics founder Gerald O’Connor said: “We are devastated by the tragic loss of our great employees.

“Those who are missing or deceased and their families are in our thoughts and prayers.”

The Impact Plastics factory was badly damaged in the floods (NBC News)

The families of the deceased have since filed lawsuits against Impact Plastics arguing that the deaths were preventable.

As of January 2025, they reportedly haven’t had any contact with Impact Plastics, but they have received condolence gifts in the shape of fast food gift cards, they say.

Family members of Bertha Mendoza, who was among those killed, have now spoken out.

Guillermo Mendoza told WCAX 3 that he’d received an envelope with a McDonald’s gift card, one for Walmart, and other gifts for different fast food outlets.

The company is said to have sent people gift cards (Lindsey Nicholson/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

“It was like, ‘Your mom died, but go get a burger,'” Guillermo said. “‘It happened, so here is a little snack.'”

He went on: “Obviously we’re very upset.”

Employees who survived the ordeal were also allegedly given similar gift cards.

“I was shocked, and it bothered me,” Robert Jarvis said. “That is how they treated us and what they thought about us.”

Elsewhere, attorney Luke Widener, who is with the law firm representing the victims, branded the questionable gifts as a ‘slap in the face’.

UNILAD has approached Impact Plastics for comment.

A frantic 911 call revealed the horrifying moment a seven-year-old girl was buried in the hole she was digging at the beach.

Beachgoers desperately tried to help the young girl after a hole she had been digging collapsed and she was buried in the sand.

The girl, who police have now named as Sloan Mattingly from Indiana, was digging a hole at the Lauderdale-by-the-Sea beach in Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday (February 20) before tragedy struck.

The hole, believed to be around four to five feet deep, collapsed, leaving Sloan and her brother Maddox, nine, trapped.

Maddox was buried up to his chest, but Sloan was buried beneath the sand.

It’s believed around 20 beachgoers ran to help the trapped girl, while others quickly called 911 for assistance.

Witness Lee Ann Heinlein told CBS: “You could see everybody digging every time. More help came. There were more shovels arriving on the scene. You could hear them calling for buckets.

“All you can think about is the parents. I mean, and the little boy that was their son. Now, they have to go through a whole different kind of learning to live.”

The fire department reached the scene at around 3pm, using support boards to try and prevent more sand from collapsing into the hole, as well as using shovels to try and dig the children out.

CBS

After ‘around 20 minutes’ of frantically digging through the sand, the young girl was pulled from the sand and transported to the nearest hospital, were she was later pronounced dead. Maddox remains in hospital.

Her mother Therese told CBS News in a statement: “A freak accident happened yesterday while we are here on vacation and it took away our greatest 7.5 years.

“Don’t tell us you’re sorry for our loss… don’t do that to us. We experienced the purest human being ever and we are forever changed by her.

“We love you beyond any stretch of the imagination. Our sweet Sloan. What we would give.”

Now, 911 calls from the scene have been released.

One alarmed witness can be heard telling a dispatcher on the 911 call how the mother was desperately yelling: “My daughter is in there.”

“Everybody’s screaming,” the caller continued, before adding: “They do not see her head, they do not see her.

“They have not gotten the child out yet.’

“Oh, this mother… oh this is awful,” they said.

There are currently no lifeguards at Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, by according to the city mayor discussions are underway to introduce them.

UNILAD has contacted Broward Sheriff’s Office for a comment.

Police have offered an update on the death of a 16-year-old actor.

On Thursday (December 19), Hudson Joseph Meek reportedly fell from a moving vehicle in Vestavia Hills, Alabama.

Two days later the up-and-coming star succumbed to his injuries and died.

Meek passed ‘peacefully’ and ‘surrounded by friends, family, and the presence of his Lord and Savior’, as per his obituary.

Meek, despite only being a teenager, already had several film and TV credits to his name, including roles in Baby Driver, The School Duel, Legacies, and Found.

In 2017’s Baby Driver – which starred the likes of Ansel Elgort, Jamie Foxx, and Lily James – Meek played a young Elgort.

Some of his projects will be released posthumously next year.

Limited information has been released regarding the circumstances of Meek’s ultimately passing, but police have given a new update into their investigation.

Speaking to TMZ, law enforcement sources said that no foul play is suspected and that it doesn’t appear substances played any role in the fall that took his life.

UNILAD has previously approached the Vestavia Hills Police Department for comment on the matter and its ongoing investigation.

The actor was just 16 years old when he died last week (Searcy Funeral Home)

Meek’s death was announced on social media over the weekend.

Part of the Instagram post read: “Our hearts are broken to share that Hudson Meek went home to be with Jesus tonight. His 16 years on this earth were far too short, but he accomplished so much and significantly impacted everyone he met.”

Tributes have since been rolling in for the 16-year-old, with one person describing him as ‘one of the funniest, friendliest, and life giving people’ they’d met.

Someone else penned: “Prayers towards his family. He brought such light into the earth and I cherish every moment I had with him. To know him is to love him. Hudson, we will miss you.”

Tributes have been rolling in for Hudson in the wake of his death (hudson_meek/Instagram)

Another person shared: “Rest easy buddy, thank you for always bringing energy and a smile to everything you did. You had a special gift to make sure everyone around you was happy. Going to be missed for sure.”

“You were such a good person and friend who was kind to everyone,” added someone else who knew Meek.

A celebration of the young actor’s life is set to take place a week on from his untimely death on December 28.

If you have experienced a bereavement and would like to speak with someone in confidence, contact The Compassionate Friends on (877) 969-0010.

Two children have tragically died after a high-speed car crash in Arizona.

On Wednesday (October 23), Tate and Evie were in the car with another of their siblings while their mom, Dani Hancock Porter, was behind the wheel.

But what should have been a normal journey for the family ended in tragedy after Dani crashed the car on the Loop 202 in Mesa, Arizona, into a tow truck resulting in the deaths of nine-year-old Tate and Evie, 11.

The other child in the car is thought to have gone unharmed, while Dani, 36, was hospitalized.

Speaking after the heartbreaking ordeal, Bart Graves, the Arizona Department of Public Safety Public Information Office told AZFamily that the force of impact will have meant that Tate and Evie ‘were killed instantly’.

He said: “‘Suffice to say, the force of the impact was such that it not only sheared off the right side of this pickup truck where they were riding, but they were killed instantly by the force of this impact. They didn’t have a chance, and it’s very sad.”

Elsewhere, Graves revealed the children’s final moments and said that they’d been ‘roughhousing’ before the fatal collision.

Two children were killed in the collision (AZFamily)

“As I understand it, it was kids playing loudly, roughhousing in the backseat, or some kind of thing that distracted her from the road, from what she told us,” he further explained to the news outlet.

In light of the heartbreaking incident, officials have urged parents to try not get distracted by their kids when driving.

Jesse Torrez, the director of Arizona Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, explained via ABC affiliate KNXV-TV: “Even if you’re looking straight ahead, but your peripheral goes to the right, you have a tendency [to] start to drift left or right. This poor woman just happened to drift to the right.

“And had she drifted either two seconds after she did, she probably would have missed that tow truck.”

A friend of the family has created a GoFundMe page in the wake of Tate and Evie’s untimely deaths. The target had been set as $20,000, but so far over $163,000 has been raised.

Evie and Tate were ‘killed instantly’ in the crash (Ty Porter/Facebook)

Roxie Heussner, the person who started the page, penned: “Tate and Evie, age 9 and 11, were tragically killed on the 202 freeway in Arizona today, October 23, 2024, in a car accident. Their parents and siblings are now not only having to face life without two of their children, but a mound of medical and funeral bills just years after one of their children went through a long course of cancer treatment.

“I know not everyone is in a position to give, but if you can, please help. And if you can’t give monetarily, please uplift this family in thoughts and prayers as they face this unimaginable tragedy.”