Tornadoes strike US South, killing 14 people amid rising risk

At least 14 people were killed in Arkansas and Missouri as a series of tornadoes hit the US Midwest and Southeast overnight, raking a path of destruction that was still being assessed on Saturday, police said.

Twenty-six tornadoes were reported but not confirmed to have touched down late on Friday night and early on Saturday as a low-pressure system drove powerful thunderstorms across parts of Arkansas, Illinois, Mississippi and Missouri, said David Roth, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center.

"Today there is a high risk for more tornadoes across Alabama and Mississippi. The chance is 30%," he said. "That's pretty significant."

Two of the tornado deaths occurred in southern Missouri in the Bakersfield area of Ozark County, about 270 miles (434 km) southeast of Kansas City, and a third death was reported in Butler County, the Missouri State Highway Patrol and other officials said.

Eight others were killed in the storms, the Missouri Highway Patrol said on X, without giving details.

Three other deaths from the overnight storms occurred in Arkansas, the state's Department of Emergency Management reported on its website, adding that there were 29 injuries.

As the storms regain strength, the highest possible risk of tornadoes and severe thunderstorms is on Saturday night, forecasters said. By Saturday afternoon, parts of Mississippi and Alabama were issued a level 5 tornado alert, the highest level the NWS has.

Robbie Myers, the director of Butler County Emergency Management in Missouri, told reporters that more than 500 homes, along with a church and grocery store in the county were destroyed. A mobile home park had been "totally destroyed," he said.

The storms will move east throughout Saturday and could hit as far east as the Florida Panhandle and Atlanta by midnight, according to the NWS.