At least 18 people died as overnight tornadoes and storms ripped through the southern United States, damaging hundreds of homes and causing massive power outages.

At least 11 people were killed in six counties in Mississippi, the state’s emergency management agency confirmed on Monday, with roughly 200 homes damaged or destroyed and more than 72,000 people without power.

Another five people are dead in Murray County in northern Georgia and one other person died in Oconee County in north-western Georgia, according to local media reports.

“We’ve got two mobile home parks that were hit heavily and that’s where a concentration of the fatalities was,” Murray County Fire Chief Dewayne Bain told a local Fox News affiliate on Sunday. “It’s pretty devastating damage.”

One other person was found dead near Seneca, South Carolina after a tornado briefly touched down in the area, Scott Krein, the Oconee County emergency management chief, told local news station ABC4.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration called the devastating storm system “an exceptionally rare event.”

The National Weather Service said that additional storms are possible on Monday.

“The Easter storms were catastrophic, but Mississippi will not be defeated,” Gov. Tate Reeves said in a tweet.

“We know how to take care of one another, and we will. We know how to be strong and courageous in the face of terrible pain, and we will. We are resilient,” he added.

 

NAN