Tennessee Flash Flood: 2-Year-Old Missing After Being Swept Away By Waters

A two-year-old boy was swept away by floodwaters Saturday in Waverly after record-shattering rainfall wreaked havoc in Tennessee.

Kellen Burrow Vaughn is among dozens reported missing in the catastrophe.

The toddler was in the arms of his mother Brittney LeAnn McCord when he was pulled away by the current, Tennessean reported. Brittney wrapped her son in her arms as she tried to hold on to a clothesline outside her apartment. She also kept hold of her other four children as floodwaters rose. Brittney and the other kids survived.

The last time I saw him was when we put him to bed," Kalaub Brian McCord, his stepfather, told the news outlet. Kalaub was on his way to the emergency room in Waverly to seek treatment for a sinus infection when he "got a bad feeling and turned around."

Kalaub said he had to struggle for five hours trying to get home. No first responders even got close, he added. He was rescued by a boat operated by a passerby. Kalaub and others in the rescue boats also managed to save a few people, including two elderly women, from the waters.

He saw one first responder rescue boat getting so swept away that it had to be rescued. "That was the only boats we had seen in the water. I was screaming for them to go get my family. They're the reason everybody got saved. If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't have who I do have of my family," he told Tennesseean, as he broke down thinking about Vaughn.

So far, 21 people have died in the flash floods, said Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis.

Meanwhile, Waverly Mayor Buddy Frazier told WKRN that 42 people are currently missing as search efforts continued through Sunday. According to him, most people he had spoken to reported feeling "caught off guard by the rainfall."

Grant Gillespie, the police and fire chief of Waverly, told CNN the figure of people affected by floods was high because the storm had knocked out cell service, leaving the stranded unable to contact their family.