At least six people were killed in Autauga County, Ala., on Thursday as storms swept through the South, the sheriff’s office said, damaging homes and leaving tens of thousands of customers without power in parts of Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi.
Meteorologists were tracking reports of tornadoes throughout the affected region, the National Weather Service said.
The threat of severe weather and tornadoes was expected to continue into the night, officials said, with two states issuing emergency declarations on Thursday evening.
The governor of Alabama, Kay Ivey, declared a state of emergency for six counties, including Autauga, Chambers, Coosa, Dallas, Elmore and Tallapoosa. “We are far too familiar with devastating weather, but our people are resilient,” Governor Ivey said on Twitter, noting the six deaths.
The governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, also declared a state of emergency.
Videos and images emerging from across the South showed felled trees as well as damage to homes and other buildings. It was not immediately clear how many people across the South had been hurt or the extent of their injuries.
In Mississippi, the state’s emergency management agency shared a video on Twitter that showed a home in Monroe County that had been essentially flattened. Other houses nearby had sustained roof damage, with debris littering the area.
“That home is completely destroyed,” Malary White, a spokeswoman for the agency, said on Thursday. More reports of damage were expected later as local officials continued to assess parts of the state, Ms. White said.
Officials said the damage in Monroe County, in northeastern Mississippi, was believed to have been caused by a tornado sometime after 7 a.m. local time.
Preliminary information showed there had most likely been “numerous tornadoes,” many of them across Alabama, said Frank Pereira, a meteorologist with the Weather Service, by phone on Thursday.
After the storm passes, the service would conduct “storm surveys” to determine whether any tornadoes had occurred, he said.
As of Thursday evening, there were 20 tornado watches from North Carolina to the Florida Panhandle, Mr. Pereira said. “Over the next few hours, there’s a good likelihood that we will see additional tornadic activity.”
As the storm system moved east on Thursday morning, it also brought severe weather conditions to portions of Alabama and Georgia.
A number of severe thunderstorm warnings were issued in the Atlanta area, including one for the area around Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, where the Weather Service warned of winds up to 60 miles per hour, quarter-size hail and a possible tornado. The airport was under a ground stop on Thursday afternoon because of thunderstorms in the area, according to the Air Traffic Control System Command Center.
In Bibb County, Ala., the Weather Service warned on Twitter that a “large and EXTREMELY DANGEROUS tornado” was moving through the area at 11:34 a.m. local time. Less than an hour later, the Weather Service warned residents in Dallas County, Ala., that a “large and extremely dangerous tornado” was moving through Selma.
The mayor’s office in Selma said in a statement that the city had “received significant damage from the tornado.”
The office urged residents to “please refrain from traveling the roadways” and avoid downed power lines. “City crews will be out as soon as practical to clean up,” it said.
At a news conference on Thursday evening, officials in Selma said that they had received no reports of fatalities, but that there were some injuries. A curfew will be put in place from dusk to dawn across the city.
“This is a sad day in Selma and Dallas County,” Jimmy Nunn, a Dallas County probate judge said at the news conference. “Please stay at home and let the emergency crews do what they need to do.”
Videos and images from Selma that circulated on social media on Thursday showed damaged buildings, fallen trees and vehicles with broken windows.
The Weather Service office in Birmingham, Ala., said on Twitter that there was “confirmed damage” in the city of Selma.
The severe weather outbreak prompted several tornado warnings to be issued across portions of Georgia and Alabama, including one at 12:53 p.m., when the Weather Service warned people in Autauga County, northwest of Montgomery, of a tornado emergency.
“This is a life-threatening situation,” the Weather Service said. “Take shelter immediately!!”
Gary Weaver, deputy director of the Autauga County Emergency Management Agency, said that there were reports of injuries and damage, including felled power lines, throughout the county. Mr. Weaver said that his office had received reports of some injuries, but that it was not clear how many people had been hurt and how badly.
“We don’t even know the extent of it yet,” Mr. Weaver said of the damage.
While there were several reports of tornadoes across Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi, the number of them and the strength of them had yet to be confirmed by the National Weather Service, which sends storm survey teams out to affected areas in the hours and days after a storm.
Over 37,000 customers in Alabama and more than 78,000 customers in Georgia were without power as of Thursday evening, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks outages across the country. It was unclear whether all of those outages were the result of severe weather moving through the South.
Livia Albeck-Ripka and Jesus Jiménez
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