At least 14 people, some children, have been killed after tornadoes struck Lee County, Alabama, authorities said.
Sheriff Jay Jones told local news outlets they were still pulling people from the rubble, and some had been hospitalised with serious injuries.
“The challenge is the sheer volume of the debris where all the homes were located,” he told CNN.
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey posted on Twitter to warn residents there could be more extreme weather to come.
“Our hearts go out to those who lost their lives in the storms that hit Lee County today,” she wrote.
The National Weather Service (NWS) classified the first tornado to strike as at least an EF-3 – meaning winds of up to 165 miles per hour (266km/h).
Sheriff Jones described the damage as “catastrophic”, saying one tornado cut a path of destruction quarter of a mile (0.4km) wide and several miles long.
