Tornadoes and thunderstorms ravaged parts of US South on Tuesday and Wednesday, killing at least 48 people, injuring more than 150 and causing widespread damage.
Hardest hit were Tennessee - where 24 died - Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi and Alabama, with unconfirmed sittings of 69 tornadoes across the region and northward into Indiana, according to the National Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.
The storms crumpled trucks on highways like toys and trapped and killed people in splintered houses, factories and shops. "This big of an outbreak is unusual on any day any time of year," center metrologist Roger Edwards said. Tornadoes typically kill about 70 people in the United States each year.
Storms continued to prowl the region after daybreak. The National Weather Service said tornado watches were posted Wednesday morning in parts of Florida, Alabama and eastern Tennessee.
The weather service and state officials said 24 had died in Tennessee, 13 in Arkansas and seven in Kentucky and three in Alabama. Injuries were widespread, with 149 people injured in Tennessee alone. A tornado struck the Columbia Gulf Transmission company in Hartsville, Tennessee, and set off a natural gas fire that lit up the early morning sky, officials said.
The twister flattened the nearby home of one person. Earlier, Kentucky emergency spokesman Buddy Rogers said seven people were killed there. Three deaths and multiple injuries were reported after a tornado tore through Lawrence County in northern Alabama, said Brenda Morgan of the Alabama Emergency Agency.
Neighbouring Mississippi reported no deaths but around 11 injuries after two tornadoes ripped across an industrial park, seriously damaging a Caterpillar factory, and farm communities north of the University of Mississippi campus in Oxford. The storm system stretched as far north as Ohio.
The Jackson Sun in Tennessee reported a nursing home was seriously damaged but the 114 residents were evacuated safely. A college in Jackson was also damaged, briefly trapping some students in dormitories.
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