An aerial view shows extensive damage to homes and businesses in the path of tornadoes in Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Tornadoes and violent storms ripped through seven southern U.S. states, killing more than 220 people as they flattened neighbourhoods, flipped cars, and toppled trees and power lines, officials said on Thursday.
In the deadliest series of tornadoes in nearly four decades in the United States, 131 people were killed in Alabama, the worst-hit state which suffered "massive destruction of property," Governor Robert Bentley said.
"We expect that number to rise," Mr Bentley said, in a conference call with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) administrator, Craig Fugate.
In preliminary estimates, other state officials reported 32 killed in Mississippi, 30 in Tennessee, 11 in Arkansas, 10 in Georgia, 8 in Virginia, and 2 in Louisiana.
The clusters of powerful tornadoes - more than 100 in total - combined with storms to cut a swathe of destruction heading from west to east over several days. The Browns Ferry nuclear power plant in Alabama was expected to be shut for days, possibly weeks, as workers repaired damaged transmission lines. Up to 1 million people in Alabama were left without power.
FEMA chief, Mr Fugate, said it is too early for his agency to give a confirmed overall death toll, and authorities are concentrating on rescue and recovery.
Some of the worst devastation occurred on Wednesday in Alabama, where a massive mile (1.6 kilometres)-wide tornado slammed into Tuscaloosa, home to the University of Alabama, killing at least 15 people including some students.
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