HUMPHREYS COUNTY, Tenn. — Residents are salvaging what’s left after unrelenting floodwaters crashed through Middle Tennessee on Saturday, damaging Humphreys County the most.
“I couldn’t get down the road because there was a house sitting in the middle of it,” said Chris Hixson, of Southaven who traveled to Waverly, Tennessee to help search for his grandson.
Twenty lives were lost including two-year-old Kellen Burrow-Vaughn. His family had to hold on for dear life in their backyard.
“Before they could get out the back door the water was already over their head and they had to actually grab ahold of the clothes line to hang on to keep from floating down the current of water,” said Hixson, Kellen’s grandfather.
Hixson said that much rainwater is hard to fathom and shared that the current forced the toddler out of his mother’s arms.
“She had ahold one second and the next second he was floating away. How would anybody be able to sleep at night. I can’t even fathom that.”
Hixson drove back and forth between Southaven, Mississippi and Waverly to help search for Kellen and other missing residents. The search was emotionally tough on rescuers.
“I don’t mean to be cruel or nothing but once the decay smell started coming out it was easier for us to detect it by nose and be able to get the dogs in there,” Hixson said.
Family said the child was found Tuesday about a mile and a half to two and a half miles away from the apartment complex he was at.
“He was an energetic kid, he was the joy of the party whenever he walked in the room,” said his grandfather.
Hixson said Kellen was a child of God and that you could see the joy he had in his life through pictures.
Now the grandfather is turning his efforts to help others who have no place to go or are need of materials to rebuild.
“There was a gentleman who brought his own helicopter, spent his own fuel, saving lives with his helicopter Saturday morning,” said Hixson said. “So this is the volunteer state, we come together.”
Southaven RV is taking supply donations for flooding victims in Middle Tennessee if you’d like to contribute.