North Carolina Flash Floods Brought by Tropical Depression Fred Leave 30 Missing

More than 30 residents of a North Carolina town are currently missing after Tropical Depression Fred brought flash floods to the area.

During a press conference on Wednesday, the Emergency Service Director of North Carolina's Haywood County, announced the county currently has "30-plus people unaccounted for," following the flash floods.

"Ongoing search and rescue efforts are happening in Lake Logan and the Cruso areas," Haywood County Emergency Services Director Travis Donaldson said during a press conference.

Donaldson noted that emergency services personnel is currently conducting welfare checks on the 30 individuals that are unaccounted for.

The Haywood County Sheriff's Office said they began receiving reports of "high water" on Tuesday afternoon, prompting officers to help residents evacuate from the area.

"As the water level began to rise, a whole lot faster than I have ever saw it rise here in our county, we soon started to have to rescue people from their homes and provide additional assistance to our residents and to our fire departments," Haywood County Sheriff Greg Christopher said during the press conference. "With the help from water rescue units from throughout the state of North Carolina, we have been searching abandoned vehicles, homes, buildings for survivors and we will continue to search to ensure that every community member is located or at least accounted for."

The situation in Haywood County comes shortly after Tropical Depression Fred traveled over North Carolina. Tropical Depression Fred brought heavy rainfall to North Carolina and surrounding states, prompting the National Weather Service to issue several flash flood warnings.

According to WRAL News in North Carolina, a flash flood from the Pigeon River in Haywood County traveled through the cities of Canton, Clyde and Lake Waterville on Tuesday night.

In a tweet on Tuesday night, the Haywood County Sheriff's Office wrote, "Residents living in the Canton, Clyde, Crabtree, and other areas that are downstream along the Pigeon River should SEEK HIGHER GROUND IMMEDIATELY due to impending flooding. DO NOT CALL 911 unless it is a life-threatening emergency."

Numerous pictures and videos of the flooding experienced in Haywood County were posted across social media.

"Task Force 11 started water rescue operations in Canton NC," New Hanover County Fire and Rescue services tweeted.

Fox Carolina News posted a video on Twitter showing a resident driving through Haywood County with severe flooding nearby.

"A viewer shared this video of flooding in Haywood County along Thickety Road. Areas around the County are experiencing flooding after the severe storms today," the tweet said.

Cody Alcorn of Fox Carolina shared several photos of the "severe" flooding seen in Canton, North Carolina.

Prior to the flash flooding on Tuesday, the Haywood County Board of Commissioners issued a state of emergency.

"Post tropical storm has been forecasted to produce heavy rainfall where accumulation of such severity as to cause the potential for widespread, landslides, flooding, leading to power outages, damage to infrastructure and unsafe road conditions; and that such conditions are forecasted to exist in Haywood County," the county said in a statement.

Newsweek reached out to Haywood County Emergency Services for further comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.