22 dead, many missing after 17 inches of rain in Tennessee

By JONATHAN MATTISE and JEFFREY COLLINS

WAVERLY, Tenn. (AP) — At slightest 22 radical were killed and rescue crews searched desperately Sunday amid shattered homes and tangled debris for dozens of radical inactive missing aft record-breaking rainfall sent floodwaters surging done Middle Tennessee.

Saturday’s flooding successful agrarian areas took retired roads, cellphone towers and telephone lines, leaving families uncertain astir whether their loved ones survived the unprecedented deluge. Emergency workers were searching doorway to door, said Kristi Brown, a coordinator for wellness and information supervisor with Humphreys County Schools.

Many of the missing unrecorded successful the neighborhoods wherever the h2o roseate the fastest, Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis said. Their names were connected a committee successful the county’s exigency halfway and listed connected a metropolis department’s Facebook page.

The dormant included duplicate toddlers who were swept from their father’s arms, according to surviving household members, and a foreman astatine region euphony prima Loretta Lynn’s ranch. The sheriff of the region of astir 18,000 radical immoderate 60 miles (96 kilometers) westbound of Nashville said helium mislaid 1 of his champion friends.

Up to 17 inches (43 centimeters) of rainfall fell successful Humphreys County successful little than 24 hours Saturday, appearing to shatter the Tennessee grounds for one-day rainfall by much than 3 inches (8 centimeters), the National Weather Service said.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee toured the area, stopping connected Main Street successful Waverly wherever immoderate homes were washed disconnected their foundations and radical were sifting though their water-logged possessions. All astir the region were debris from wrecked cars, demolished businesses and homes and a chaotic, tangled premix of the things inside.

Shirley Foster cried arsenic the politician walked up. She said she conscionable learned a person from her religion was dead.

“I thought I was implicit the daze of each this. I’m conscionable tore up implicit my friend. My location is nothing, but my person is gone,” Foster told the governor.

The hardest-hit areas saw treble the rainfall that country of Middle Tennessee had successful the erstwhile worst-case script for flooding, meteorologists said. Lines of storms moved implicit the country for hours, wringing retired a grounds magnitude of moisture — a script scientists person warned whitethorn beryllium much communal due to the fact that of planetary warming.

The downpours rapidly turned the creeks that tally down backyards and done downtown Waverly into raging rapids. Business proprietor Kansas Klein stood connected a span Saturday successful the municipality of 4,500 radical and saw 2 girls who were holding connected to a puppy and clinging to a woody committee expanse past, the existent excessively accelerated for anyone to drawback them. He hadn’t recovered retired what happened to them.

Not acold from the bridge, Klein told The Associated Press by telephone that dozens of buildings successful a low-income lodging country known arsenic Brookside appeared to person borne the brunt of the flash flood from Trent Creek.

“It was devastating: buildings were knocked down, fractional of them were destroyed,” Klein said. “People were pulling retired bodies of radical who had drowned and didn’t marque it out.”

The Humphreys County Sheriff Office Facebook leafage filled with radical looking fo r missing friends and family. GoFundMe pages were made asking for assistance for ceremonial expenses for the dead, including 7-month-old twins yanked from their father’s arms arsenic they tried to escape.

The foreman astatine Lynn’s ranch, Wayne Spears, died checking connected animals, Davis said.

“He’s retired astatine his barn and adjacent happening you know, helium goes from checking animals successful the barn to hanging connected successful the barn to radical seeing him floating down the creek. And that’s however accelerated it had travel up,” the sheriff said.

A photograph taken by idiosyncratic astatine the ranch showed Spears successful a cowboy chapeau clinging to a pillar successful brown, churning h2o up to his chest.

“Wayne’s conscionable 1 of those guys, helium conscionable does everything for everybody, if there’s a occupation to do,” said his person Michael Pate, who met Spears astatine the ranch 15 years ago.

At the Cash Saver market successful in Waverly, employees stood connected desks, registers and a angiosperm rack arsenic the waters from the creek that’s usually 400 feet (120 meters) from the store rushed successful aft devastating the debased income lodging adjacent door. At 1 point, they tried to interruption done the celling into the attic and couldn’t, store co-owner David Hensley said.

The flood waters stopped rising arsenic accelerated conscionable arsenic the concern was getting dire and a rescue vessel came by. “We told him that if there’s idiosyncratic other retired determination you tin get, spell get them, we deliberation we’re OK,” Hensley said.

At the opening of a quality league connected Tropical Storm Henri’s interaction connected New England, President Joe Biden offered condolences to the radical of Tennessee and directed national catastrophe officials to speech with the politician and connection assistance.

Just to the eastbound of Waverly, the municipality of McEwen was pummeled Saturday with 17.02 inches (43.2 centimeters) of rain, smashing the state’s 24-hour grounds of 13.6 inches (34.5 centimeters) from 1982, according to the National Weather Service successful Nashville, though Saturday’s numbers would person to beryllium confirmed.

A flash flood ticker was issued for the country earlier the rainfall started, with forecasters saying 4 to 6 inches (10 to 15 centimeters) of rainfall was possible. The worst tempest recorded successful this country of Middle Tennessee lone dropped 9 inches (23 centimeters) of rain, said Krissy Hurley, a upwind work meteorologist successful Nashville.

“Forecasting astir a grounds is thing we don’t bash precise often,” Hurley said. “Double the magnitude we’ve ever seen was astir unfathomable.”

Recent technological probe has determined that utmost rainfall events volition go much predominant due to the fact that of man-made clime change. Hurley said it is intolerable to cognize its nonstop relation successful Saturday’s flood, but noted successful the past twelvemonth her bureau dealt with floods that utilized to beryllium expected possibly erstwhile each 100 years successful September southbound of Nashville and successful March person to the city.

“We had an unthinkable magnitude of h2o successful the atmosphere,” Hurley said of Saturday’s flooding. “Thunderstorms developed and moved crossed the aforesaid country implicit and implicit and over.”

The occupation isn’t constricted to Tennessee. A national survey recovered man-made clime alteration doubles the chances of the types of dense downpours that successful August 2016 dumped 26 inches (66 centimeters) of rainfall astir Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Those floods killed astatine slightest 13 radical and damaged 150,000 homes.

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Collins contributed to this study from Columbia, South Carolina. John Raby contributed from Charleston, West Virginia.