'He Could Be Anywhere': Search Continues For Missing Georgia Toddler Following Tornado Outbreak

Eric Chaney
Published: January 26,2017
Rescue crews continue to search for a missing 2-year-old amid the scattered remains of a southwestern Georgia mobile home park decimated by a tornado on Sunday.
Detrez Green’s mother told authorities he slipped away from her Sunday afternoon and toddled into their kitchen just before a tornado sent an oak tree crashing through their home.
Much of the mobile home park is now rubble, WALB.com reported, creating a never-ending list of possibilities of where the toddler could be.
(MORE:  Weather Pattern Change On the Way)
Search crews are combing "every inch, because we are talking about a two-year-old," Albany-Dougherty Search and Rescue Commander Chuck Mitchell told the station. "Not only on the ground, but if we still have trees in the area, we have to search up in the trees. He could be anywhere."

A rescue worker enters a hole in the back of a mobile home Monday, Jan. 23, 2017, in Big Pine Estates that was damaged by a tornado, in Albany, Georgia.
(AP Photo/Branden Camp)

Adijah Rainey, the boy's mother, said that she did not see Detrez "leaving the home or being swept away," emergency management officials told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
"He was playing with a toy the last time I saw him," father Kevian Green told the Associated Press. "I just hope they can find him."
Officials put the search on hold Wednesday evening due to darkness but were back on the job Thursday, picking carefully through the masses of twisted metal, downed trees and scattered household belongings for any sign of the boy.
"They don't move a foot until they see dirt," Albany Fire Captain Bobby Spargo told WALB. "So, if they've been past it, it's been checked, and that's the way they proceed in their search efforts."
Officials told WALB that crews will continue to search until the boy is found, and while they appreciate the community offering to help, the search is not currently open to outside volunteers because of the dangerous conditions.
"I just keep asking God if he's alive that he protect him and bring him back safe," Albany resident Evelyn Solomon told WALB. "And if he's not, please just direct them to him so the family can have closure."
MORE: Tornado Outbreak Hits South