At least 22 people were dead and about 20 remained missing Sunday afternoon after record-shattering downpours triggered flooding across parts of the state. Among those killed were twin babies who were swept from their father’s arms, according to surviving relatives. Grey Collier, public information officer for the Humphreys County Emergency Management Agency, said hundreds of homes may be uninhabitable. The flooding took out roads, cellphone towers and telephone lines.

The hardest-hit areas saw double the rain that area of Middle Tennessee had in the previous worst-case scenario for flooding, meteorologists said.  Kansas Klein, a business owner in the town of Waverly, told The Associated Press that a low-income housing area known as Brookside was severely damaged in the floods. “It was devastating: Buildings were knocked down, half of them were destroyed,” Klein said. “People were pulling out bodies of people who had drowned and didn’t make it out.”

Gov. Bill Lee and U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty arrived in the county via helicopter Sunday to survey the damage.  “Goodness gracious,” Lee said on a car ride as he saw homes taken off their foundations and moved into neighbors’ yards. In McEwen, Tennessee, 60 miles west of Nashville, a state-record 17 inches of rain fell in less than 24 hours. The town of Waverly, about 10 miles west, saw about 15 inches, turning the creeks that run behind backyards and through downtown into raging rapids. Stories of survival emerged Sunday as the number of missing inched down from a high of about 50.

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