‘I feel like Iike I failed them’: Grieving dad recalls losing baby twins in Tennessee floods
A grieving father has said he feels like he “failed” his family after his twin babies died in the devastating flooding in Tennessee.
At least 22 people were killed and dozens are still missing after record-breaking rainfall and floodwater caused severe damage to homes, buildings, roads and power cables as it rushed through the southeastern part of the US state on Saturday.
The two seven-month-old babies, Ryan and Rileigh Rigney, were swept out of their father’s arms in Waverly on Saturday morning when water surged into their apartment complex as they tried to escape.
Twins Ryan and Rileigh Rigney. Pic: Family handout via NBC
Their heartbroken parents, Matthew Rigney and Danielle Hall, have described how the water began to rage through their apartment where they sheltered with their four children.
“We woke up and water was filling our apartment,” Mr Rigney told local news station WTVF-TV.
“Our front door… the glass shattered and water just raged in through our house.”
“I had the twins in my arms, I had (19-month-old) Brayla on my hip and I had (five-year-old) Maleah wrapped around my neck,” he told the news station, his voice trembling.
“The water, when it hit us it just pulled us under, all of us and we were trapped underneath a bed.”
Breaking down in tears, he continued: “I wish there was something I could have done, I wish I would have just stayed there – I didn’t know if the whole house was about to collapse on us.”
Ms Hall said she attempted climbing out of the window to go to a nearby store for help, but ended up having to grab onto a tree for her life.
Speaking about his daughter Maleah, who sat with her family on the couch during the interview, Mr Rigney said: “I was trying to find all of them, and Leah came up like a big girl. You swam like a big girl, and I’m so proud of you.”
Flood water rips through apartments in Tennessee
A neighbour helped Mr Rigney and the two children up to the roof, while Hall was rescued from the tree by boat.
Ms Hall said she saw her husband “get on the roof”.
“But I didn’t see my babies, and I was screaming ‘please tell me that they’re alive'”.
Through tears, Mr Rigney said: “I dreaded telling my wife that I didn’t have all four – like I failed them.”
Sheriff Chris Davis told NBC affiliate WSMV that the siblings’ bodies had been found.
Many of the missing live in the neighbourhoods where the water rose the fastest, the sheriff added, who confirmed the 22 deaths in his county.
Some of the damage to property caused by Saturday’s flooding in McEwen, Tennessee. Pic: AP
President Joe Biden offered condolences to the people of Tennessee and directed federal disaster officials to talk to the governor and to offer assistance.
Tennessee governor Bill Lee toured the area, calling it a “devastating picture of loss and heartache”.
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
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This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
A farmer who fell from a greenhouse roof during an anti-immigrant raid at a licensed cannabis facility in California this week has died of his injuries.
Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first person to die as a result of Donald Trump’s Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (ICE) raids.
His niece, Yesenia Duran, posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe to say her uncle was his family’s only provider and he had been sending his earnings back to his wife and daughter in Mexico.
The United Food Workers said Mr Alanis had worked on the farm for 10 years.
“These violent and cruel federal actions terrorise American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families,” the union said in a recent statement on X.
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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it executed criminal search warrants at Glass House Farms facilities on Thursday.
Mr Alanis called family to say he was hiding and possibly fleeing agents before he fell around 30ft (9m) from the roof and broke his neck, according to information from family, hospital and government sources.
Agents arrested 200 people suspected of being in the country illegally and identified at least 10 immigrant children on the sites, the DHS said in a statement.
Mr Alanis was not among them, the agency said.
“This man was not in and has not been in CBP (Customs and Border Protection) or ICE custody,” DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said.
“Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a greenhouse and fell 30ft. CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible.”
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Four US citizens were arrested during the incident for allegedly “assaulting or resisting officers”, the DHS said, and authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents.
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In a statement, Glass House, a licensed Cannabis grower, said immigration agents had valid warrants. It said workers were detained and it is helping provide them with legal representation.
“Glass House has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors,” it added.
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