At least 21 people died after rains and floods in Tennessee

At least 21 people died after rains and floods in Tennessee

At least , 21 people have died and 20 more have gone missing after heavy rain and flooding swept parts of Tennessee, damaging homes, knocking down trees and overturning cars, officials said Sunday.

Twenty people died in Waverley, a small town about 75 miles west of Nashville, said Grant Gillespie, the city's chief of public safety.

“We have suffered a crushing loss,” he told a news conference.

The number of missing persons dropped from 50 earlier on Sunday to 20 on the same day, as the first responders continued to search. On its Facebook page, the public security department listed the names of the missing and asked the public for help in finding them. The department said there are children on the list.

Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis said authorities spent Sunday answering emergency calls and trying to get an idea of ​​how badly the area was affected. Some parts of the county, with a population of just over 19,000, are still without electricity and telephones, he said.

According to the National Weather Service office in Nashville, the flood came after record rainfall. Humphreys County saw more than 17 inches of rain in 24 hours on Saturday, breaking the previous record of 13.6 inches in 1982.

In neighboring North Carolina, flooding caused by the remnants of tropical storm Fred last week was also fatal. In hard-hit Haywood County, officials said Sunday that five people have died and one is missing.

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