Mississippi has started clean-up operations after a destructive tornado tore across the state, killing at least 25, shredding houses, and largely wiping out the small town of Rolling Fork.
Under warm spring sunshine, shocked rescue workers surveyed the damage with roofs blown away, buildings flattened and cars smashed together amid piles of debris.
The weather system, mixed with thunderstorms and driving rain, left a trail of havoc across the southern state on Friday, slamming several towns.
The National Weather Service gave the tornado a rating of a four out of five on the Enhanced Fujita scale, saying that it had cut a path of up to 1.2 kilometres wide for 95km.
The American Red Cross moved into a National Guard building in Rolling Fork less than 24 hours after the storm struck the town, which is home to fewer than 2,000 people.
An area was set up as an infirmary and boxes full of cereal bars and baby nappies were shuttled in to provide food and medical support for storm victims who had "lost everything," said John Brown, a Red Cross official for Alabama and Mississippi.
Anna Krisuta, 43, and her 16-year-old son Alvaro Llecha took shelter at the site, saying their house was "in pieces."
25 people were killed and dozens more injured, according to Mississippi's emergency management agency.
The severe weather also left a man dead in neighbouring Alabama when he was trapped under an overturned trailer, the sheriff's office in Morgan County said.
Emergency supplies
President Joe Biden has ordered federal aid to Mississippi to support recovery efforts.
The funding will provide grants for temporary housing, home repairs and low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses, the White House said in a statement.
Mr Biden described the images from Mississippi as "heartbreaking" and said in a statement that he had spoken with Mr Reeves and offered his condolences.
"To those impacted by these devastating storms, and to the first responders and emergency personnel working to help their fellow Americans, we will do everything we can to help," Mr Biden said. "We will be there as long as it takes. We will work together to deliver the support you need to recover."
Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves thanked Mr Biden on Twitter "for recognizing the scale of the damage in Mississippi and quickly approving our disaster declaration - a critical step in disaster response."
The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Deanne Criswell, said she was travelling to Mississippi on Sunday to "see first-hand the impacts that some of these communities have had."
"They're still very much in life-saving, life-sustaining mode," she told ABC.
She praised first responders, saying some "may have lost their homes themselves," and said FEMA had sent teams, with more on their way to "help plan for and start the recovery process."
Electricity repairs were underway to restore power to the more than 6,000 customers still in the dark in Mississippi, along with nearly 10,000 in Alabama, monitor poweroutage.us reported.
Volunteers poured in from surrounding towns, including Lauren Hoda, who traveled 70 miles from Vicksburg to help.
"When I woke up this morning, I wanted to cry for the people of this town because I don't think they had much time before (the tornado) came," she said.
She spent Saturday night in Rolling Fork bringing donations of water, food, canned goods, nappies, wipes, medicine and toothpaste from collection points.
In Silver City, a rural community of around 300, residents described locking themselves in interior rooms and cowering inside bathtubs as the tornado swept through.
"I thought about God," said Katherine Ray. "I just started saying, 'I followed the Ten Commandments, Lord, it's just me at the house,' and I just said, 'Just take care of me.'"
Her prayer was answered, she said; her trailer was damaged but still standing, while many of her neighbors saw their trailers completely destroyed.
Governor Tate Reeves, who visited Silver City, declared a state of emergency in the affected areas.
"The scale of the damage and loss is evident everywhere affected today," he wrote on Twitter. "Homes, businesses ...entire communities."
In Alabama, which was also struck by the same storm system, rescuers pulled a man from the mud when his trailer was overturned, but the man later died from his injuries, according to the Morgan County Sheriff's Office. That appeared to be the only reported death in that state as of Saturday evening.
Preparing for more turbulent weather
Mississippi was preparing for more turbulent weather on Sunday, including damaging winds and hail, with the emergency management agency warning that "tornadoes cannot be ruled out."
After separate storms in the region, two tigers were re-captured in Georgia when a tornado damaged animal enclosures at the Wild Animal Safari, in Pine Mountain.
Tornadoes, a weather phenomenon notoriously difficult to predict, are relatively common in the United States, especially in the central and southern parts of the country.
In January, a series of damaging twisters, all on the same day, left several people dead in Alabama and Georgia
