Tornadoes Rip Through The South, Leaving At Least 16 Dead

At least 16 people were killed after tornadoes began ripping through the South on Easter, destroying homes and storefronts and leaving over 1 million people without power from an intense storm system now headed towards the Mid-Atlantic.

Tornadoes and severe weather hit Central Texas early Sunday, bringing “gigantic” hail and damage, and then travelled east through Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, and the Carolinas.

In Mississippi, the state’s emergency management agency said 11 people died in at least three different counties near the Louisiana border — Walthall, Lawrence and Jefferson Davis — from the weather.

Five more lost their lives in Murray County, Georgia, the fire chief Dewayne Bain told NBC News on Monday morning.

The rural county, an hour outside Chattanooga, Tennessee, was hit hard, and four of the five who died were found in a local trailer park. The other fatality was brought to the emergency room before succumbing to injuries, and five more people were injured, Bain said.