More severe weather possible in Alabama, Georgia

Dozens of people were injured in the storms, some seriously, said Greg Flynn, spokesman for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.

“My ears are still ringing”, Tony Goodwin said Thursday as he recounted how he and seven family members ran for a homemade storm shelter right before a tornado hit Perry County, Tenn. The driver of a tractor-trailer suffered minor injuries when the storm blew his rig over. He cut up fallen trees not far from Goodwin’s home.

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant declared a state of emergency in the aftermath of the storms.

And thunderstorms also caused flooding and travel chaos in Georgia, Alabama and the Carolinas. Lahon Curry told NBC affiliate WMC that a tornado destroyed his Marshall County home with his mother and sister inside, but fortunately no one was hurt.

Despite the severe weather front weakening, Alabama residents reported a tornado striking the city of Birmingham.

Details are still sketchy, Holmes said, and nightfall is making it hard for storm spotters to identify tornado activity.

The agency said in a statement Friday night that there were reports of another death and another person missing.

But that didn’t stop some from spending their Christmas giving rather than receiving.

The American Red Cross of North Mississippi has been providing donated toys to a centre in Holly Springs for children whose families were affected by the storms. He says it was a wonderful experience for those giving and for those getting. They added that flash floods in the USA southeast were also a possibility. Exactly a year ago, tornadoes hit MS, killing five people and injuring dozens.

Sean Wagner, an amateur storm chaser, shot video of a tornado in Holly Springs and said he had to warn two families that had stopped under an overpass. The National Weather Service said it may have been on the ground 150 miles. The storm killed six people in Tennessee and tore through houses and businesses along a path that stretched across several counties.

The Columbia Police Department said in a news release that the bodies of three people were found in a auto submerged in a creek Thursday afternoon. The agency says the deaths were weather-related.

Unseasonably warm weather Wednesday helped fuel twisters from Arkansas to MI.

Some who lost their homes in the storms were thankful for what matters most: Their lives and the lives of their loved ones.

Barbara Perkins was told Thursday by an insurance agent that her storm-damaged home in Falkner, Mississippi, was a complete loss. His home was a total loss.

He managed to climb inside and fetch some Christmas gifts that had been under his tree, but his neighbours weren’t so fortunate. Two died in a home nearby. “I got in, and as soon as I picked up the beam and set it across (the shelter door), you could hear it”.