Storms packing strong winds and heavy rain slammed the US mid-section. A man sits on what was a wall to Calvary Baptist Church in Ashland. (Photo: AP)
A tornado damaged or destroyed at least 20 homes in the northwest part of the state. (Photo: AP)
A woman looks for family photos after a tornado hits the city as she sifts through the rubble of her father-in-law's home in Lutts. (Photo: AP)
Uprooted trees lay across yards as family and friends gather in the morning to offer assistance and support to victims of a tornado that hit Holly Springs. (Photo: AP)
A tree blew over onto a house in Arkansas, killing an 18-year-old woman and trapping her one-year-old child inside, authorities said. Rescuers pulled the toddler safely from the home. (Photo: AP)
Standing in what was a bedroom, Melvin Faulkner inspects the tornado damage to his parent's house in Holly Springs. (Photo: AP)
Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant talks to the media in Holly Springs after tornadoes hit US. Emergency officials blamed the severe weather for injuring scores of others and destroying dozens of cars, homes and businesses. (Photo: AP)
Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant inspects tornado damage in Ashland. (Photo: AP)
Ladarren Phillips surveys tornado damage to a house on Rising Star Road in Holly Springs. Many people were killed in as spring-like storms mixed with unseasonably warm weather and spawned rare Christmastime tornadoes in the US South. (Photo: AP)
A man shelters himself from light rain with an umbrella in Jersey City. A weather pattern partly linked with El Nino has turned winter upside-down across the US. (Photo: AP)
The biggest threat for tornadoes was in a region of 3.7 million people in Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas and parts of Missouri, Illinois and Kentucky, according to the national Storm Prediction Center in Oklahoma. (Photo: AP)
The spring-like storms damaged buildings and knocked down trees, and thousands of people were without power in Indiana and Arkansas. (Photo: AP)
Tornadoes hit US south, disrupt life ahead of New Year