DHAKA: People in northern Mississippi and Alabama huddled in hallways and basements as a string of tornadoes ripped through their states Monday, a day after another line of storms killed 16 people to their west.

Two people were killed at a trailer park west of Athens, Alabama, on Monday, according to a post on the City of Athens Facebook page. Another person died in Richland, Mississippi, said Rankin County Emergency Management Director Bob Wedgeworth, bringing the storms' overall death toll to 19.

That toll is expected to rise. William McCully, spokesman for Mississippi's Winston County, told CNN there have been "multiple fatalities" in his county.

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley declared a state of emergency for all counties.

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant said the twisters inflicted "severe damage" around the town of Louisville, about 90 miles northeast of Jackson, and more around Tupelo. Winston Medical Center, Louisville's major hospital, was among the buildings hit, Bryant told reporters.

State emergency management chief Robert Latham said authorities were grappling with "multiple events over a wide part of the state," and that more tornado warnings were expected.

The National Weather Service issued a tornado emergency warning for the area around Athens, Alabama, near the Tennessee state line, on Monday evening: "This is an extremely dangerous tornado. You could be killed if not underground or in a tornado shelter," the warning stated.

A tornado emergency also was declared in southeastern Tennessee for east central Lincoln, Moore and northwest Franklin counties. Storm spotters were tracking a large and extremely dangerous tornado seven miles east of Fayetteville, Tennessee, the weather service.

The National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center declared tornado emergencies for several counties in northern Mississippi on Monday afternoon as the line of storms moved through the state from southwest to northeast.

Source: CNN

BDST: 0856 HRS, APR 29, 2014