Rescue teams, search dogs seek dozens missing in Tennessee flooding

Rescue teams with trained search dogs combed through destroyed homes and piles of debris for dozens of people believed missing in Tennessee after record downpours and flash flooding left at least 21 dead over the weekend.

Humphreys County Emergency Management Agency said rescuers were going house to house and digging through rubble for about 40 people unaccounted for in the area, directly west of Nashville.

Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis said residents and even his officers were overwhelmed with destruction from the storm, with people returning home to find houses ruined and cars swept away.

Authorities said five or six teams of rescuers were searching through the destruction, some using dogs trained to find people.

"We're going to every home," said Grey Collier, a Humphreys County Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman. "Many have slid off their foundations, some collapsed. We're also working alongside the creeks, looking for anyone we can."

Collier said the number of the missing was changing as authorities get more information.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, a Republican, said he would request emergency assistance from the federal government in the next few days after an initial assessment.

President Joe Biden said federal emergency officials will coordinate with the state to offer assistance.

Record rainfall of up to 43 cm drenched some areas, sparking massive flooding on Saturday afternoon and evening. Especially hard hit was the Humphreys County town of Waverly, about 88 km west of Nashville. Hundreds of homes were left uninhabitable.

Waverly Mayor Wallace Frazier told the Tennessean newspaper that those killed in the flooding ranged in age from babies to the elderly. The Washington Post, citing family members, reported that seven-month-old twins died after they were swept away from their parents' arms.