After record-breaking rains caused floodwaters to surge through Middle Tennessee, rescue personnel searched feverishly Sunday amid wrecked homes and tangled debris for dozens of people still missing.
"Roads, mobile towers, and telephone lines were all knocked out by Saturday's flooding in rural areas, leaving families unsure whether their loved ones survived the historic rainfall. Emergency crews went door to door, searching for clues "Kristi Brown, a coordinator for Humphreys County Schools' health and safety supervisor, agreed.
"Many of the missing live in the neighborhoods where the water rose the fastest," Humphreys Jurisdiction Sheriff Chris Davis said, confirming the 22 deaths in his county. The names of the missing were posted on a bulletin board in the county's emergency center and on the Facebook page of a city department.
"I would expect, given the number of fatalities, that we're going to see mostly recovery efforts at this point rather than rescue efforts," Tennessee Emergency Management Director Patrick Sheehan said.
According to surviving family members, the dead included twin newborns who were swept from their father's arms and a foreman at Loretta Lynn's property. The sheriff of the county, which has a population of roughly 18,000 people and is located 60 miles (96 kilometers) west of Nashville, said he had lost one of his closest friends.
The National Weather Service reported that up to 17 inches (43 centimeters) of rain fell in Humphreys County in less than 24 hours on Saturday, surpassing the Tennessee record for one-day rainfall by more than 3 inches (8 centimeters).
During a visit to the area, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee described it as a "devastating picture of loss and heartache."
"He came to a halt on Main Street in Waverly, where some homes had been washed away from their foundations and residents were sorting through their flooded belongings. Debris from crashed cars demolished businesses and residences, and a chaotic, tangled combination of the things within littered the county.
As the governor approached, Shirley Foster sobbed. She stated that she had recently learned about the death of a friend from her church.
"I thought I'd recovered from the shock of it all. I'm all messed up because of my friend. My house is in shambles, but my friend has vanished "The governor was informed by Foster.
According to meteorologists, the hardest-hit areas received twice as much rain as the previous worst-case scenario for flooding in Middle Tennessee. Storms raced through the area for hours, squeezing out a record quantity of rain, a scenario that scientists have warned will become more regular as the world warms.
The downpours turned the creeks that flow behind houses and through downtown Waverly into wild rapids in a matter of minutes. Kansas Klein, a business owner in the village of 4,500 inhabitants, was standing on a bridge Saturday when he noticed two girls clinging to a wooden plank while holding on to a puppy, the current too rapid for anyone to grab them. He had no idea what had happened to them.
Klein told The Associated Press by phone that dozens of structures in Brookside, a low-income housing complex near the bridge, appeared to have taken the brunt of Trent Creek's flash flood.
"It was devastating," Klein said, "buildings were knocked down, half of them were destroyed." People were hauling bodies out of the water who had drowned and died. People searching for lost friends and relatives have flooded the Humphreys County Sheriff Office's Facebook page. Funeral expenses for the dead, including 7-month-old twins snatched from their father's arms as they tried to flee, were raised through GoFundMe accounts.
Wayne Spears, the foreman at Lynn's property, was also killed.
"He's out in his barn, and the next thing you know, he's going from checking animals to hanging on to people seeing him floating down the creek. And that was how quickly it had appeared "explained the sheriff.
Someone at the property snapped a snapshot of Spears wearing a cowboy hat and hanging on a brown pillar, churning water up to his chest.
"Wayne's just one of those guys, he just does everything for everybody, if there's a job to do," said Michael Pate, who met Spears 15 years ago at the ranch.
Employees at the Cash Saver groceries in Waverly stood atop desks, registers, and a flower rack as floodwaters from a creek 400 feet (120 meters) away poured in after destroying low-income houses next door. They tried and failed to break through the ceiling into the attic at one point "David Hensley, a co-owner of the store, explained.
"Just as the situation was becoming critical, the floodwaters slowed down and a rescue boat arrived. We told him that if there's anyone else you can get, go get them; otherwise, we think we're fine "Hensley explained.
President Joe Biden conveyed sympathies to the people of Tennessee at the start of a news conference on Tropical Storm Henri's impact on New England and urged federal disaster officials to speak with the governor and provide aid.
According to the National Weather Service in Nashville, the hamlet of McEwen, just east of Waverly, received 17.02 inches (43.2 centimeters) of rain on Saturday, shattering the state's 24-hour record of 13.6 inches (34.5 centimeters) set in 1982. Saturday's data will have to be confirmed.
Before the rain started, a flash flood watch was issued for the area, with experts predicting 4 to 6 inches (10 to 15 centimeters) of rain. According to Krissy Hurley, a weather service meteorologist in Nashville, the worst storm in this area of Middle Tennessee barely dumped 9 inches (23 cm) of rain.
Hurley explained, "Forecasting almost a record is something we don't do very often," It was nearly impossible to think that we'd seen twice as much as we'd ever seen before. Extreme rain events will become more common as a result of man-made climate change, according to recent scientific studies. Hurley said it's impossible to tell what effect it played in Saturday's flood, but that her agency had to deal with floods that used to happen once every 100 years in September south of Nashville and in March closer to the city in the previous year.
Hurley said of Saturday's deluge, "We had an incredible amount of water in the atmosphere," Over and over, thunderstorms formed and moved across the same area.
Tennessee isn't the only state with this issue. According to federal research, man-made climate change doubles the probability of torrential downpours like the one that dumped 26 inches (66 cm) of rain around Baton Rouge, Louisiana in August 2016. At least 13 individuals were killed in the floods, and 150,000 dwellings were damaged.
