Dickson Public Works personnel check the flooding on Old Pond Lane following record rainfall, Saturday, 21 August 2021, in Dickson, Tennessee. Heavy flooding in several Middle Tennessee counties on Saturday prompted water rescues, road closures, and communications disruptions, with several people reported missing. Flash flood warnings were in effect for Dickson, Houston and Montgomery and Stewart counties on Saturday evening. Photo: Josie Norris / The Tennessean / AP
Dickson Public Works personnel check the flooding on Old Pond Lane following record rainfall, Saturday, 21 August 2021, in Dickson, Tennessee. Heavy flooding in several Middle Tennessee counties on Saturday prompted water rescues, road closures, and communications disruptions, with several people reported missing. Flash flood warnings were in effect for Dickson, Houston and Montgomery and Stewart counties on Saturday evening. Photo: Josie Norris / The Tennessean / AP

By Michael Levenson
21 August 2021

(The New York Times) – At least 22 people were killed and 50 others remained missing on Sunday after catastrophic flash floods swept through Middle Tennessee, the authorities said.

Rob Edwards, the chief deputy of the Humphreys County Sheriff’s Office, confirmed the numbers of dead and missing on Sunday and said the authorities were doing house-to-house checks in the hardest-hit areas in Humphreys, a rural county of about 18,500, roughly 72 miles west of Nashville.

“Things are moving fast and we are finding people left and right,” Deputy Edwards said in an email, adding that he expected the death toll to rise.

Extreme floods in Middle Tennessee on Saturday have killed at least 16 people, Humphrey County Emergency Emergency Management Agency announced at 11:30 a.m. Sunday, 22 August 2021. Video: Delana Fuller Swinford / Storyful / Knoxville News Sentinel

Among those killed were several children, including twin 7-month-olds, he said.

In an interview on Sunday morning with the television station WKRN, Mayor Buddy Frazier of Waverly, Tenn., the seat of Humphreys County, said that assessments of the damage were continuing and that the number of homes lost was “staggering.”

He said that residents had minimal time to protect themselves from the floodwaters.

“Some of them described it as a tidal wave,” Mr. Frazier said. “It just caught everyone totally off guard yesterday.”

McEwen, Tenn., which is also in Humphreys County, recorded 17 inches of rain on Saturday, which the National Weather Service said on Twitter would set a record for the most rainfall in a 24-hour span in Tennessee if preliminary estimates were confirmed. The previous record, set in Milan, Tenn., in 1982, was 13.6 inches. […]

A Tennessee community is reeling this morning as dozens remain unaccounted for after massive flooding ravaged the heart of the state on Saturday, 21 August 2021. Residents say they saw neighbors clinging to their homes as flood waters rushed through. NBC News’ Vaughn Hillyard reports for Sunday TODAY. Video: TODAY

In Tennessee, the devastation came after an estimated eight to 10 inches of rain inundated Dickson, Hickman, Houston and Humphreys counties, the National Weather Service said on Saturday morning.

By Saturday night, officials were reporting that some areas had gotten more than a foot of rain.

Local news channels showed surging, mud-brown floodwaters submerging houses nearly to their roofs, washing across highways and flipping trucks and cars. [more]

At Least 22 Dead and 50 Missing in Tennessee Floods, Officials Say