Tens of thousands of customers were without power in Alabama, Kentucky, and Mississippi, and thousands more hunkered down in basements and shelters as The National Weather Service issued watches and warnings for more tornadoes throughout the night in Alabama.
The system is the latest onslaught of severe weather a day after a half-mile-wide tornado carved an 80-mile path of destruction through the suburbs of Little Rock, Ark., killing at least 15. Tornadoes or severe storms also killed one person each in Oklahoma and Iowa on Sunday.
In north Alabama, Limestone County Emergency Director Rita White told the Associated Press two deaths had been confirmed in a twister that caused extensive damage west of the city of Athens. Separately, Limestone Commissioner Bill Latimer said he has reports from a worker of at least four deaths in the county, but those had not been confirmed.
Six people died in Winston County, Miss., including a woman who died in the day care center she owned in Louisville, county Coroner Scott Gregory told The Associated Press late Monday. Lousville is the county seat and home to about 6,600 people.
It was unclear if any children were in the day care at the time, said William McCully, acting spokesman for the Winston County Emergency Management Agency.
Earlier Monday, emergency officials attending a news conference with Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant said seven people had been killed statewide. State Director of Health Protection Jim Craig said officials were working with coroners to confirm the total. It was unclear if the deaths in Winston County were included in that tally.
Lee County Coroner Carolyn Gillentine Green said a woman died Monday when her car either hydroplaned or blew off a road during the storm in Verona, south of Tupelo.
The storm was so huge it was visible from space, photographed by weather satellites that showed tumultuous clouds arcing across much of the South.
Injuries were reported in Tupelo, a community of about 35,000 in northeastern Mississippi; and in Louisville, the seat of Winston County about 90 miles northeast of Jackson, Miss., where about 6,600 people live, said Mississippi Health Department spokesman Jim Craig. He said the number and seriousness of the injuries were not known because relief efforts were still underway. Television footage showed trucks being flipped over on state roads.
In southern Tennessee, two people were killed in a home when a suspected tornado hit Monday night, Lincoln County Emergency Management Director Mike Hall said. The winds destroyed several other homes as well as a middle school in the county that borders Alabama, Hall said.
Along Mississippi Highway 397 on the eastern edge of Louisville early Tuesday, firefighters could be seen picking through the remains of an unidentified number of pulverized mobile homes. Lt. Brian Arnett of the Starkville Fire Department said they were searching for three people who remained unaccounted for.
Bruce Ridgeway, vice president of North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo, said that hospital received six people with non-life-threatening injuries. Tupelo Mayor Jason Shelton said damage was extensive in neighborhoods in the city. Authorities sent teams to the region even before the storm system's arrival.
A tornado damaged the Winston Medical Center in Louisville, Miss., said Jack Mazurak, a spokesman for the Jackson-based University of Mississippi Medical Center, which received a trauma patient from the county and was sending personnel to help triage patients on the ground.
A strong storm barreling through southeastern Kentucky damaged homes and businesses and left more than 6,000 customers without power, said Harlan County Emergency Management Director David McGill. No injuries were reported.
Residents and business owners were not the only ones seriously rattled by the tornadoes.
NBC affiliate WTVA-TV chief meteorologist Matt Laubhan in Tupelo, Miss., was reporting live on the severe weather about 3 p.m. when he realized the twister was coming close enough that maybe he and his staff should abandon the television studio.
"This is a tornado ripping through the city of Tupelo as we speak. And this could be deadly," he said in a video widely tweeted and broadcast on YouTube.
Moments later he adds, "A damaging tornado. On the ground. Right now."
The video then showed Laubhan peeking in from the side to see if he was still live on the air before yelling to staff off-camera to get down in the basement.
"Basement, now!" he yelled, before disappearing off camera himself.
Later, the station tweeted, "We are safe here."
Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant declared a state of emergency Monday in advance of the storms, which sent emergency officials rushing to put plans in place.
More than 50 school systems shut down early in Alabama's northern half as a precaution against having children and workers on the road in buses and cars when the storms arrived. Several cities closed municipal offices early.
MyFoxAL.com reported that a large tornado damaged apartments near the Medical West Hospital in Bessemer. Some people were reportedly trapped at a church in Kimberly, but no injuries were reported.
George Grabryan, director of emergency management for Florence and Lauderdale County in northwest Alabama, said 16 shelters opened before storms even moved in and people were calling nervously with questions about the weather.
"There's a lot of sensitivity up here," Grabryan said. "I've got a stack of messages here from people, many of them new to the area, wanting to know where the closest shelters are."
Forecasters said the system moving into Alabama could generate tornadoes with strength ratings of EF-3 or higher and damage tracks 30 miles long or worse.
Elsewhere, forecasters warned Georgia residents of a threat of tornadoes in northern and central counties in coming hours.
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