At least 22 people are dead and 50 are missing after historic flooding ravaged Middle Tennessee on Saturday due to record-breaking rain. National Weather Service meteorologist Krissy Hurley said the area received about 20 to 25% of its annual rainfall on Saturday morning.

The flooding destroyed homes and took out telephone lines. The rainfall tripled forecasts as Humphreys County saw 17 inches of rain in a 24-hour period, breaking the previous record by at least three inches.

The town of McEwen was hit by 17.02 inches of rain, breaking the previous record of 13.6 inches that was set in 1982, according to the National Weather Service.

The floodwaters were gone by Sunday.

Waverly Police and Fire Chief Grant Gillespie said 20 deaths were in Waverly County, which is located about 75 miles west of Nashville. At a news conference, Gillespie called it a "devastating loss."

The death toll is expected to rise.

“I would expect given the number of fatalities, that we are going to see mostly recovery efforts at this point than rescue efforts,” said Tennessee Emergency Management Director Patrick Sheehan.

“It was devastating: Buildings were knocked down, half of them were destroyed. People were pulling out bodies of people who had drowned and didn’t make it out,” Kansas Klien, a business owner in Waverly, told the Associated Press.

Two of the victims include 7-month-old twins, who were swept out of their father's arms, according to surviving family members. Officials confirmed that the bodies were recovered.

Gov. Bill Lee called the floods “a devastating picture of loss and heartache.”

Humphreys County schools are going to be closed for the rest of the week and 2,000 homes are currently without power.

Multiple roads and bridges are closed and phone services are gradually being restored. The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) is continuing to assess the damage done by the flood with the help of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

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