Staffers from London to Nashville teamed up from the moment it became clear that Tennessee flooding was causing death and destruction on a catastrophic scale, capturing the full dimensions of the tragedy.
Late Saturday, Atlanta desk editor R.J. Rico moved aggressively in pursuit of the story. Acting on information unearthed by user-generated content sleuth Nishit Morsawala in London, Rico conducted a late-night interview with Kansas Klein, the owner of a pizzeria in Waverly, Tennessee, who described standing on a bridge and watching two girls holding a puppy and clinging to a wooden board sweep past in the water below. The early presentation, which included compelling UGC video of the devastation, was so vivid that AP Deputy Managing Editor Noreen Gillespie said it felt like AP was already on the ground in Middle Tennessee.
Brian Mitchell, right, looks through the damaged home of his mother-in-law along with family friend Chris Hoover in Waverly, Tenn., Aug. 22, 2021.
AP Photo / Mark Humphrey
Cars swept up in floodwater are stacked on the banks of Blue Creek in Waverly, Tenn., Aug. 23, 2021, after record weekend rainfall.
AP Photo / John Amis
Dustin Shadownes of Ashland City Fire Department searches a creek for missing persons accompanied by a cadaver dog in Waverly, Tenn., Aug. 23, 2021.
AP Photo / John Amis
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee comforts Shirley Foster, who had just learned a friend of hers died in the flooding, in Waverly, Tenn., Aug. 22, 2021.
Alan Poizner / The Tennessean, Pool via AP
Kansas Klein, standing at right in the doorway, talks outside of his destroyed Bella Blak Pizzeria in Waverly, Tenn., Aug. 22, 2021. Klein told AP of standing on a bridge and watching two girls holding a puppy and clinging to a wooden board sweep past in the water below.
AP Photo / Mark Humphrey
A trailer and a car swept up in weekend flash flooding lie amid debris in Waverly, Tenn., Aug. 23, 2021.
AP Photo / John Amis
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is reflected in the glasses of Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell in Nashville, Tenn., Aug. 25, 2021, before a tour of Middle Tennessee flood damage.
AP Photo / Mark Humphrey
AP
Reporter Jonathan Mattise and photographer Mark Humphrey set out at first light Sunday to McEwen and Waverly where they captured personal stories and heartbreaking images of the destruction wrought by 17 inches of rain in a single day. Working with colleagues John Raby in West Virginia and Jeffrey Collins in South Carolina, and freelance photographer John Amis, Mattise and Humphrey delivered a moving portrait in real time of a storm that took the lives of at least 22 people, left dozens of others missing and the remaining residents of a rural Tennessee community straining to cope with the devastation.
The widely played all-formats coverage deftly examined the unusual nature of the storm and its likely connection to climate change, laying out its impact for a global audience that will almost certainly be experiencing similar storms going forward.