Rescue teams are searching for dozens of people believed missing after record downpours and flash flooding in Tennessee that left at least 21 dead, swept cars into ditches and washed away homes and buildings, authorities said.
Humphreys County Emergency Management Agency said rescuers were searching through houses, rubble and debris for 40 people still missing in the area, directly west of Nashville.
"The number of the missing keeps changing as we get more information, but we're hoping it will go down as people report in," said Grey Collier, a spokeswoman for the agency.
"We're going to every home," she said. "Many have slid off their foundations, some collapsed. We're also working alongside the creeks, looking for anyone we can."
Tennessee was hit on Saturday by what meteorologists called historic storms and flooding, dumping as much as 38cm of rain.
Rural roads, state highways, bridges and hundreds of homes were washed out and widespread power outages affected thousands of people.
In Humpreys County, about 90 minutes from country music hub Nashville, the downpour broke a 24-hour rainfall record for Tennessee, the National Weather Service said.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee described "picture of loss and heartache" in Waverly, a hard-hit town of around 4,500 where 20 of the victims died.
"Our hearts and our prayers need to be for those folks in that community, many of them who have suffered not only the loss of their homes but the loss of family members and friends," he said in a press conference yesterday after touring the wreckage.
Police chief Grant Gillespie said the other death was in a more remote area of the county.
Initially, about 40 people were reported missing, but by late afternoon that number had been halved.
"We're hopeful that we're getting to the end of that list," Chief Gillespie told reporters.
Authorities have imposed a nighttime curfew amid efforts to account for the missing.
The police chief also urged Waverly residents to remain inside after 8pm because of "problems with a small amount of looting and trespassing".
The rising water had struck Waverly so quickly that some people were unable to escape, local officials said.
US President Joe Biden began an afternoon press conference by expressing his "deepest condolences for the sudden and tragic loss of life" in Tennessee.
"I've asked the FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) administrator to speak to Governor Lee of Tennessee right away," Mr Biden said.
Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis said that the dead included two toddlers and that he himself lost a friend to the floods.
"They just went and got one of my best friends and recovered him. He drowned in this," the sheriff said. "It's tough, but we're going to move forward."
Half a dozen children are among the missing, he said.
Photos posted on social media showed a row of homes nearly submerged in brown floodwater, cars flipped over or piled on top of one another and roads covered in mud and debris.
"The news media has been very focused on what's happening in other areas - Haiti, Afghanistan, hurricanes coming into the northeast - but I think that we need to understand that the devastation here in Tennessee has been every bit as significant," said US Senator Bill Hagerty after visiting a flood-devastated school.
The Piney River in nearby Hickman County crested nearly 3.6m above its historic record high, a local National Weather Service office said.
Henri weakens to tropical depression
Meanwhile, Storm Henri weakened to a tropical depression last night but was forecast to dump heavy rain across the US Northeast through tonight, possibly triggering flash floods and further power outages across the region.
An additional 5-10cm of rainfall was expected overnight into this morning for New York City, northern New Jersey, northeastern Pennsylvania, southern New York and into southern New England, the National Weather Service said.
The storm will weaken further as it pushes out to the Gulf of Maine.
Henri made landfall as a tropical storm near Westerly, Rhode Island yesterday afternoon with top sustained winds of 95km/h, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
The deluge that hit New York on Saturday evening submerged a star-studded concert meant to mark the city's emergence from the worst of the coronavirus pandemic.
A light rain that turned into a downpour sent thousands of music fans fleeing the 'Homecoming Concert' in Central Park.
The downpour, indirectly associated with Henri, set an hourly rainfall record of 4.93cm for Central Park, as well as a daily record of 11.3cm, according to meteorologist Josh Weiss of the NWS' weather prediction centre.
