R.I.P.

At Least 32 Dead in the Aftermath of Florence, Including 1-Year-Old Boy

Kaiden Lee-Welch was caught in floodwater Sunday.

The number of deaths related to Florence has risen to at least 32, the Associated Press reports. Twenty-five of the deaths happened in North Carolina, and the count also includes an individual who died in a Richmond, Virginia, tornado. Earlier Monday, police in North Carolina said they found the body of a 1-year-old boy who was swept away by floodwaters in the wake of Hurricane Florence, the boy’s mother told The Daily Beast. Kaiden Lee-Welch was in a car with his mom, Dazia Lee, on Sunday evening when the vehicle was swept off the road in the extreme storm surges. “They found my baby boy,” Lee said on the phone, just seconds after hearing from the sheriff’s office. “He didn’t make it.” Moments before the call, Lee had texted: “I want the world to know that I will not stop until we find him.” Investigators said there were barricades on the road but that Lee drove around them, according to the sheriff's office, and tried to go through the flooded section. “Her vehicle left the roadway and came to rest among a group of trees,” Union County Sheriff’s Department officials said. “She managed to free herself and Kaiden, who was in a car seat, but lost her grip on him in the rushing water.” In a Monday press conference, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper called Florence “an epic storm that is still continuing.” “Some areas have not seen the worse flooding yet,” Gov. Cooper said. “We know that raging rivers are still out there and more lives can be claimed.”