The daughter of an Impact Plastics employee who died in a flash flood during Hurricane Helene has shared revealing texts suggesting workers may have been forced to stay longer than necessary.

Impact Plastics and its CEO, Gerald O'Connor, have been sued by the family of one of its Tennessee employees who was killed by catastrophic flooding caused by Hurricane Helene. The wrongful death lawsuit claims that workers were forced to stay at their posts even when managers knew conditions were growing dangerous.

Text messages between an Impact Plastics supervisor and his daughter show workers were still at the factory long after flood warnings were issued.

Johnny Peterson was one of five Impact Plastic employees who died Sept. 27 in historic flooding in Erwin, Tennessee. His family said he died a hero.

The owner of the plant has publicly said he was one of the last to leave, but the supervisor's family said that is not true.

The lawsuit alleges that workers asked on multiple occasions to leave throughout the morning, but they were not permitted to do so.