KANSAS CITY - Friday night's powerful storms caused at least a dozen deaths in Missouri as well as power outages for 150,000 people across the Bi-State.
The National Weather Service confirmed at least three tornadoes in the St. Louis area, one in Jefferson County, two more in Franklin County. Officials expected more surveying to determine that there were additional tornadoes.
The storms killed more than two-dozen people in other states, including Arkansas, Mississippi and Alabama. High winds decimated homes, wiped out homes and flipped over tractor-trailer trucks.
Missouri resident Dakota Henderson said he and others rescuing trapped neighbors found five bodies scattered in the debris Friday night outside what remained of his aunt’s house in hard-hit Wayne County.
“It was a very rough deal last night,” Henderson said Saturday not far from the splintered home from which he said they rescued his aunt through a window of the only room left standing. “It’s really disturbing for what happened to the people, the casualties last night."
The dynamic storms, earning an unusual “high risk” designation from weather forecasters, was blamed for deadly dust storms in the nation’s midsection, icy winter weather in northern parts of the country and severe thunderstorms on Sunday, including on the West Coast.
Authorities were still sifting through massive tornado damage. Coroner Jim Akers of Butler County in Missouri described the “unrecognizable home” where one man was killed as “just a debris field.”
“The floor was upside down," he said. "We were walking on walls.”
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves announced six people died in three counties and three more people were missing late Saturday as storms moved further east into Alabama, where damaged homes and impassable roads were reported. Officials confirmed three deaths in Arkansas, where Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp also declared an emergency in anticipation of the storm's shift eastward. Early Sunday morning, the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency used its social media accounts to repost a National Weather Service tornado watch for parts of southeast Georgia.
In response to the watch, which warns of isolated tornadoes and hail and gusts of 50 to 70 mph (80 to 112 kph), Kemp posted a note saying his family was “praying for all those impacted by this storm system and those still in its path."
“We will continue to work closely with state and local officials to respond to damage and assess any needs following this weather event,” Kemp wrote.
Dust storms spurred by the system's early high winds claimed almost a dozen lives on Friday. Eight people died in a Kansas highway pileup involving at least 50 vehicles, according to the state highway patrol. Authorities said three people also were killed in car crashes during a dust storm in Amarillo, in the Texas Panhandle.
Still, experts said it's not unusual to see such weather extremes in March.
Tornadoes have been widespread
Significant tornadoes continued late Saturday, with the region at highest risk stretching from eastern Louisiana and Mississippi through Alabama, western Georgia and the Florida panhandle, the Storm Prediction Center said.
Bailey Dillon, 24, and her fiance, Caleb Barnes, watched from their front porch in Tylertown, Mississippi, as a massive twister struck an area about half a mile (0.8 kilometer) away near Paradise Ranch RV Park.
They drove over afterward to see if anyone needed help and recorded video of snapped trees, leveled buildings and overturned vehicles.
“The amount of damage was catastrophic,” Dillon said. “It was a large amount of cabins, RVs, campers that were just flipped over. Everything was destroyed.”
Paradise Ranch said via Facebook that all staff and guests were safe and accounted for, but Dillon said the damage extended beyond the RV park itself.
“Homes and everything were destroyed all around it,” she said. “Schools and buildings are just completely gone.”
Some images from the extreme weather went viral online.
Tad Peters and his father, Richard Peters, had pulled over to fuel up their pickup truck in Rolla, Missouri, on Friday night when they heard tornado sirens and saw other motorists fleeing the interstate to park.
“Whoa, is this coming? Oh, it’s here. It’s here,” Tad Peters can be heard saying on a video. “Look at all that debris. Ohhh. My God, we are in a torn ...”
His father then rolled up the window.
The two were headed to Indiana for a weightlifting competition but decided to return home to Norman, Oklahoma, about six hours away, where they then encountered wildfire.