Severe weather threatens eastern US states
Local news anchor Dawn Scott saw "piles of debris" in Vilonia, Arkansas
Severe
weather is threatening as many as 73 million Americans in the eastern
states, after two days of powerful storms killed up to 34 people.
On Sunday and Monday, tornadoes cut a broad track of death and destruction through the southern US states.
The storms flattened buildings, overturned cars, and left thousands of residents without power.
Aerial footage captured by a drone shows emergency vehicles and debris on a highway south of Mayflower, Arkansas
More than two million people are said to be at risk of tornadoes and high winds in parts of Alabama and Mississippi on Tuesday.
As the storm moves further east, parts of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina are expected to be under threat of severe weather, forecasters say.
Meanwhile, the search for survivors continues in the southern US states that were smashed by huge tornadoes on Monday and Tuesday.
In Mississippi, officials reported 12 dead, including nine near Louisville and three in separate traffic accidents.
Early on Tuesday, residents of Louisville crept from their shelters to find their homes demolished by a tornado that punched holes in the roof of a local hospital.
A fierce storm blew a freight train off its tracks in Illinois
Giles Ward huddled in a bathroom with his wife and four other relatives as a tornado destroyed his brick house and overturned his son-in-law's four-wheel-drive parked outside his home in Louisville.
"For about 30 seconds, it was unbelievable,'' said Mr Ward, a Republican state senator. "It's about as awful as anything we've gone through."
The mayor of Tupelo, Jason Shelton, told CNN the damage from the storms was widespread and "devastating". A 21:00 local time (02:00 GMT) curfew was in place on Monday.
Power went out in much of the city as lines went down and trees were torn up by the storm, the US National Weather Service reported.
Three people were reported dead in Alabama, including a University of Alabama student who perished when he took shelter in a basement and a retaining wall collapsed on him.
Emergency crews searched for survivors in the rubble early on Tuesday in Louisville, Mississippi
Gloucester Street in Tupelo was decimated
Many homes and businesses, including a new secondary school worth $14m (£8.3m), were left in ruins in Vilonia after the storm.
"There's just really nothing there anymore. We're probably going to have to start all over again," said Vilonia schools chief Frank Mitchell after inspecting the wreckage of the school.
The death toll may yet rise as crews search the wreckage of destroyed buildings.
"We're trying to make sure everyone is accounted for," Brandon Morris, spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management, told the Associated Press news agency.
Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe said the storm "may be one of the strongest we have seen".
A trailer was overturned in Mayflower, Arkansas
People searched the rubble following a tornado strike in Vilonia, Arkansas
"Your country will be there to help you recover and rebuild, as long as it takes," he said.
Scientists in Oklahoma are working on implementing new technologies to study tornadoes
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