An unstable spring weather system spawned several tornadoes overnight in the United States' Midwest and Ohio River Valley, killing at least 27 people, and leaving dozens of others injured in Missouri, Kentucky and Virginia, as they levelled homes and businesses while knocking out power for tens of thousands, authorities say.
Most of the damage was in Kentucky, where authorities said 18 people died and another 10 were hospitalised in critical condition. Officials in Missouri said that around seven people were dead there, while two people were also killed by falling trees in Virginia, local media reported.
Drone footage shared by local media showed scenes of devastation in Kentucky's London, where the tornadoes levelled homes and left tree trunks standing bare, shorn of branches. State Emergency Management Director Eric Gibson said hundreds of homes were damaged by the storms.
Parts of two dozen state roads were closed, and some could take days to reopen, according to Governor Andy Beshear, who said the number of deaths could still rise. "We need the whole world right now to be really good neighbours to this region," the governor said.
The sheriff's office said that rescuers searched for survivors all night and into the morning, and an emergency shelter was set up at a high school, where donations of food and other necessities were arriving.
Kayla Patterson, her husband and their five children huddled in a tub in their basement in London as the tornado raged around them. "You could literally hear just things ripping in the distance, glass shattering everywhere, just roaring like a freight train. It was terrible," she told Associated Press on Saturday.
The family eventually emerged to the sounds of sirens and panicked neighbours. While the family's own home was spared, others right behind it were demolished, Patterson said.
The storm was the latest severe weather to cause deaths and widespread damage in Kentucky. Two months ago, at least 24 people died in a round of storms that swelled creeks and submerged roads.
A resident, Chris Cromer, told AP that he got the first of two alerts on his phone around 11:30 pm, about a half-hour before the tornado struck. He and his wife grabbed their dog, jumped in their car and sought shelter in the crawlspace at a relative's nearby home because their own crawlspace is small.
"We could hear and feel the vibration of the tornado coming through," said Cromer, 46. A piece of his roof was ripped off, and windows were broken, but homes around his were destroyed.
"It's one of those things that you see on the news in other areas, and you feel bad for people, then, when it happens, it's just surreal," he said. "It makes you be thankful to be alive, really."
The storms hit after the Trump administration massively cut staffing of National Weather Service offices, with outside experts worrying about how it would affect warnings in disasters such as tornadoes.
