86-year-old among four killed by flooding in Haywood County, NC. Seven still missing

UPDATE: On Aug. 21, Haywood County officials said the number of people listed as missing was down to four. The original story is below.

The number of people missing in flood-ravaged Haywood County fell from 20 to seven in the past day, but the death toll climbed to four, according to county officials.

Sheriff Greg Christopher reported in a Facebook post two more bodies were found Friday, but their identities were being withheld pending notification of relatives.

The four dead have been identified as: Frank Mungo, 86, Franklin McKenzie, 68, Judy Mason, 73, Charlene Mungo, 83, all of Cruso.

County officials are focusing their search for the missing in the hard-hit Bethel and Cruso areas.

Christopher says the county has names for the missing, but few details. “Unfortunately, for some, that’s all we have is just a first name and a last time,” he said.

Travis Donaldson, director of emergency services for the county, says some people in the county “watched their community get wiped away.”

“In places in Cruso there’s what I would call almost complete destruction. There’s areas of the community that don’t exist any more,” he said.

“The amount of 911 calls that our dispatchers took that night was astronomical. They couldn’t answer the phone quick enough. ... They were drowning in phone calls while others were drowning in Cruso.”

Ten to 15 bridges in the Cruso area “are destroyed or damaged beyond use,” he said.

The floods developed after remnants of Tropical Storm Fred crossed western North Carolina, dropping as much as a foot of rain on parts of Haywood and Transylvania counties.

Rivers quickly rose over their banks into surrounding streets and neighborhoods, taking homes off their foundations and pushing vehicles along in the current.

Gov. Roy Cooper declared a state of emergency, as news spread that bridges were damaged and dozens of roads were blocked by debris or washed away.

Earlier in the week, the county reported 35 people were unaccounted for and that dropped to 20 on Thursday. The missing include people from outside the county who were visiting, officials say.

At least 500 families were displaced by the flooding. Many of them lived in mobile home parks that were washed away, county officials say.

This story was originally published August 20, 2021 at 1:37 PM with the headline "86-year-old among four killed by flooding in Haywood County, NC. Seven still missing."