US storm deaths reach 22 as new tornadoes hit Texas

The death toll from tornadoes this week in the southern United States has climbed by two to 17, officials said on Saturday, as the nation braced for more stormy weather during the busy post-holiday travel weekend.

Four of those deaths may have been from a tornado hitting a number of cars in the city of Garland.

It is believed all four victims were in vehicles at the time, Hatfield said.

A man runs as sirens sound during a severe storm over downtown Dallas, Saturday, Dec. 26, 2015, in Dallas.

Travellers at Dallas Love Field airport were warned to stay away from windows, and videos broadcast on Twitter showed theatergoers being evacuated from an AMC movie complex at NorthPark Center, a prominent mall. Passengers were later given the all clear to return to their gates.

The weather service office in Norman, Oklahoma, reported a possible tornado in the southern town of Burneyville.

Reports of damage were confirmed in parts of Ellis County and the cities of Ovilla, Rowlett and Garland.

Barineau said the single tornado hit about 6:45 p.m. and damage stretches across an area of 2 square miles, and was near the intersection of Interstate 30 and George Bush Turnpike, which is a major route in the region. Severe storms were forecast for Sunday night through Monday as a strong cold front pushes through.

On the other side of Texas and including much of New Mexico, a snowstorm accompanied by plunging temperatures was expected to leave as much as 16 inches of snow through Sunday evening, said NWS meteorologist Brendon Rubin-Oster in College Park, Md.

Six people were killed in Tennessee, including three who were found in a auto submerged in a creek, according to the Columbia, Tenn., Police Department. Images uploaded to social media showed a massive tornado near Rowlett and at least one destroyed structure.

The agency estimates that around 40 homes have been damaged or destroyed, NBC Dallas-Fort Worth reported.

The twister in Birmingham, Alabama, late on Friday afternoon damaged several homes, uprooted trees and caused a handful of minor injuries, police and weather officials reported.

The severe weather snarled air traffic in the Dallas area. A statement from the governor’s office said that about 190 roads across Alabama were closed due to flooding. Four inches of rain walloped Mobile, Ala., on Wednesday.

Among the dead was a seven-year-old boy killed when a storm picked up and tossed the vehicle he was travelling in, fire chief Kenny Holbrook told reporters in the town of Holly Springs. It killed five people, injured dozens more and caused untold damage to property and infrastructure.

The wet and snowy conditions come after a Christmas Day of unseasonable warmth on the East Coast, with record high temperatures set or tied in several cities including NY. Chandler reported from Montgomery.