'These are people we know' Humphreys County flooding death toll updated to 18

WAVERLY, Tenn. (WZTV) — Waverly authorities updated the death toll in devastating flooding in Humphreys County to 18. Three people remain missing from the flood.

"That's where we are today, we're at 18 and 18 is too many," Waverly Police Chief Grant Gillespie said Tuesday. "I hope that number doesn't grow."

Initial fatality reports from the flooding were at least 21 killed and many others missing. Chief Gillespie said the number of reported deaths went down due to mistakes in counting, including a few people who had died of natural causes. He said things were chaotic and it was an "honest mistake."

Although the death toll has dropped, the devastation of 17 inches of rainfall within a 24-hour period and the lives lost in the historic rainfall are unimaginable.

“These are people we know. These are people’s families we know," Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis said as emotions run high. "These are people we grew up with. These are people of our small county. These are people close to us.”

Three people are still missing who are directly connected to the floods. Waverly Police described all three missing people as young. They say two of them are minors and one is in their 20s.

Crews are working daylight to dark, sifting through areas where they believe they went into the water and combing through areas in the creek where debris has accumulated.

On Monday, Sheriff Davis stressed the mass devastation that carved a 10-mile path. After that news conference authorities took a helicopter ride to take an overhead look at the damage. Davis now says "it's not even close" to what was initially thought.

"The devastation we talked about yesterday is not even close to what the devastation really is...we had over 125 homes that are just gone...off the foundation, twisted, turned...that will probably have to be totally destroyed before we have build back."

A news release from Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) said flooding over the weekend damaged 509 homes. 271 have been completely destroyed. 160 of those homes have major damage, and 28 have minor damage. A remaining 19 residential homes were affected.

TEMA also reports 8 public facilities and 44 commercial properties have been identified.

President Joe Biden approved a major disaster declaration for Humphreys County, which opens up federal aid to victims.

Radar estimates 8-10” of rain fell in the Waverly area—give or take an inch—but just “upstream” along Trace Creek is McEwen.

This is where the bullseye of rain fell from this event. 17.02” is a new 24-hour rainfall record for the state of Tennessee.

In essence, Waverly was already dealing with its own flooding from the heavy rain, but the 17” in McEwen had nowhere else to go but downstream—right into Waverly.

[Perspective: Here's why Waverly was hit so hard with flooding]

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.

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