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Five people were killed after flash floods destroyed homes in western North Carolina following Tropical Depression Fred last week, authorities said on Sunday, as rescuers searched for another person who was still missing.
Remnants of the storm dropped more than 10 inches of rain last Tuesday in Haywood County, North Carolina, causing the Pigeon River to overflow, washing away bridges and blocking roads with piles of debris.
The five people who died were from Cruso, North Carolina, where homes were swept from their foundations, the Haywood County government said Sunday evening.
County officials estimated the flooding caused at least $ 300 million in damage and destroyed 225 structures in Cruso, and noted that the estimate did not include damage in the towns of Canton and Clyde.
Governor Roy Cooper of North Carolina visited the area last Thursday and declared a state of emergency. “When you’re flooded, you almost have to start all over again,” he said.
Other parts of the southeast are also cleaning up from the heavy rains – and, in a few places, tornadoes – that Fred brought to the area last week.
In Tennessee, at least 22 people were killed, including 7-month-old twins, when catastrophic flash floods swept through rural communities about 90 minutes west of Nashville on Saturday, authorities said. At least two dozen others were still missing as of Monday morning.
“It is a devastating picture of loss and heartache,” Governor Bill Lee of Tennessee said at a press conference Sunday night.
While no particular storm can be directly attributed to climate change without further analysis, Fred, it fits a general pattern. Warm air can hold more moisture, resulting in more severe thunderstorms.
Fred disembarked on August 16 near Cape San Blas, Florida during a tropical storm. President Biden then approved a declaration of emergency for 23 counties in Florida, and the storm caused flooding in some areas.
This was the sixth named storm of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season. The storm had previously made landfall in the Dominican Republic and brought heavy rains to eastern Cuba and some of the Bahamas.
Mike ives contributed reports.
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