As of Monday afternoon, over 30 tornadoes had been confirmed as crews worked through about 50 reports of tornado damage spanning from Texas to South Carolina, said Mark Wiley, an emergency response specialist with the National Weather Service's Southern Region Headquarters.
Two of the twisters were rated as having peak winds of about 225 km/h including one that hit Montgomery County in the Porter and New Caney areas.
About 50 homes in Montgomery County sustained major damage and 30 were destroyed, county official Jason Smith said. A couple hundred more homes sustained minor or cosmetic damage, he said.
Cleanup crews laboured over the weekend and were continuing to pick up debris Monday.
Officials in Mississippi said two people were killed in storms there, including an 18-year-old who died after a tree fell on her home in Natchez in Adams County.
About 22,000 Mississippians remained without power Monday afternoon.
In Texas, a 48-year-old woman died in the Liverpool area south of Houston, according to the Brazoria County Sheriff's Office. The woman was found about 30 metres from her home.
Dozens of homes and buildings were significantly damaged in the area.
In North Carolina, a 70-year-old man was killed on Sunday in Statesville, just north of Charlotte, when a tree landed on the pickup truck he was driving.
In the Alabama city of Athens, northwest of Huntsville, storms damaged the downtown area, said city spokeswoman Holly Hollman. Large air conditioning units were hurled from the tops of building and the roof was ripped off a bookstore. A full-sized, stripped-down military helicopter was toppled from a pole where it was on display, she added.
Although somewhat uncommon for the season, weather officials say even December can bring severe weather under the right circumstances, as warm temperatures from the Gulf of Mexico combine with a cold front.
Meanwhile, in western Pennsylvania, high winds overnight Sunday caused power outages early Monday, most of them in Pittsburgh and other parts of Allegheny County. Wind speeds of more than 97 km/h were reported in Pennsylvania as high winds also blew across Ohio and northern West Virginia.
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