- At least 21 people were killed in the floods in Tennessee.
- Saturday’s storm brought 38 centimeters of rain, causing flooding and power outages.
- Piney River hit a record high.
Local officials said on Sunday that the devastating floods in Tennessee in the southern United States had killed at least 21 people and dozens of others were missing. They warned that this was the initial casualty toll.
Tennessee was hit by what meteorologists call a historic storm and flood on Saturday, with rainfall reaching 38 cm or more.
Rural roads, national highways and bridges were washed away, and large-scale power outages affected thousands of people.
Police Chief Grant Gillespie said at a press conference reported by NewsChannel 5 Nashville that 20 people were killed in Waverley, Humphrey.
Humphreys County is about a 90-minute drive west of Nashville, the country music center.
Gillespie told reporters that the other deceased occurred in a rural area elsewhere in the county.
Unusually strong storm
Approximately 40 people were initially reported missing, but by late afternoon, this number had been reduced by half. Gillespie said: “We hope to be at the end of this list.”
Local officials in Waverley compared unusually strong storms to hurricanes or tornadoes, and said that the water level rose too fast for some people to escape.
On Sunday, search and rescue operations continued, with workers going from house to house looking for victims or people in need.
The Waverley Department of Public Safety published a list of missing persons on its Facebook page and asked the public to help find them.
“We have a few reported by name only, and a few missing children,” the post said, urging people to notify the authorities when they find someone on the list and are safe.
In Washington, US President Joe Biden began his “deepest condolences for the sudden and tragic loss of life” in Tennessee at a press conference in the afternoon.
Biden said: “I have asked the FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) administrator to immediately call the Governor of Tennessee (Bill) Lee” and provide any help needed.
Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis told an affiliate of CNN that the dead included two toddlers. Davis himself lost a friend in the flood.
“They just went to one of my best friends and saved him. He drowned,” the sheriff said. “It’s very difficult, but we will keep going.”
Davis said there were six children among the missing.
The authorities imposed a night curfew and continued their efforts to resolve the issue of missing persons.
Photos posted on social media show a row of houses almost submerged in brown flood water, cars overturned or piled together, and roads covered with dirt and debris. A photo shows a person sitting on the roof waiting for rescue.
“The news media has been very concerned about what is happening in other regions-Haiti, Afghanistan, hurricanes entering the northeast-but I think we need to understand that the damage in Tennessee is equally serious,” the US senator said. After Bill Hagerty visited a school damaged by a flood.
The local National Weather Service office stated that the Pini River in nearby Hickman County was nearly 3.6 million meters higher than the record high.
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