The worst tornadoes to strike the United States in almost three decades have left at least 44 people dead and hundreds injured across six states, emergency officials said Sunday.
The spring storms first hit Oklahoma on Thursday and left a trail of destruction as they whipped up more than 100 reported tornadoes through Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama and North Carolina, before petering out in Virginia on Saturday night.
Witnesses described hailstones the size of grapefruit and powerful twisters that ripped the roofs off houses and picked up mobile homes as if they were children's toys.
Large trees knocked out power and fell on cars and houses, killing occupants, while flash floods reportedly washed away an entire camping site in worst-hit North Carolina.
"This is the worst storm, tornado-wise since 1984," Patty McQuillan, a spokeswoman from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in the North Carolina state capital Raleigh, told AFP, putting the toll there at 23.
1984 saw the most destructive tornadoes in more than a century, with twisters sweeping through Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia, killing 57 people and injuring more than 1,000.
"I actually do remember the last one," said McQuillan. "I believe that the destruction may even be greater this time than it was in 1984." Some 60 homes in North Carolina were completely destroyed on Saturday and more than 400 others damaged with 84,000 people facing days without power.