In the aftermath of the flooding in Erwin, Tennessee, Manuel Cordero joined a search for victims that found three people who were beyond saving.
“You couldn’t recognize them,” he told the Daily Beast on Wednesday.
The three bodies, he later learned, were all those of people he knew. He was also told that the other victims included 56-year-old Bertha Mendoza, whose baking made her the go-to person for special occasions in the town.
