55 dead as storms hit America's South

Atkins, Arkansas: Authorities went door-to-door early on Wednesday searching for more victims of deadly tornadoes that ripped the roof off a shopping mall, pummelled mobile homes and blew apart warehouses as they tore across four US states. At least 55 people were reported dead throughout the South.

The victims included 24 people in Tennessee, 13 in Arkansas, and seven in Kentucky, emergency officials said.

Among those killed were Arkansas parents who died with their 11-year-old in Atkins, about 97 kilometres northwest of Little Rock. Hundreds more were injured.

The family died from trauma when their home "took a direct hit" from the storm, Pope County Coroner Leonard Krout said.

"Neighbours and friends who were there said, "There used to be a home there," Krout said. Ray Story tried to get his 70-year-old brother, Bill Clark, to a hospital after the storms levelled his mobile home in Macon County, about 97 kilometres northeast of Nashville. He died as Story and his wife tried to navigate debris-strewn roads in their pickup truck, they said.

Extent of damage

"I looked him right in the eye and he died right there in front of me," Nova Story said. The twisters, which also slammed Mississippi, were part of a rare spasm of winter weather that raged across the nation's midsection at the end of the Super Tuesday primaries in several states.

As the extent of the damage quickly became clear, candidates including Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee paused in their victory speeches to remember the victims.

Before dawn on Wednesday, the system moved on to Alabama, bringing heavy rains and gusty winds, causing several injuries in counties northwest of Birmingham. An apparent tornado damaged eight homes in Walker County, and a pregnant woman suffered a broken arm when a trailer home was tossed by the winds, said county emergency management director Johnny Burnette.

Northeast of Nashville, a spectacular fire erupted at a natural gas pumping station northeast of Nashville that authorities said could have been damaged by the storms. An undetermined number of people were reported dead.

Power was knocked out and the local hospital was running on generators. Only the emergency room had lights on.

Eight students were trapped in a battered dormitory at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, until they were finally freed.