Several powerful tornadoes hit the southern United States on February 23, killing at least three people, officials said.

Homes and businesses have been destroyed after tornadoes lashed Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida.

The deaths occurred when mobile homes were destroyed in Louisiana and Mississippi, officials said.

Meteorologists said the storm system could hit Alabama and Georgia later on Wednesday, February 24.

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Two people died at a trailer park in Convent, southern Louisiana, where 90% of the homes were destroyed, emergency services said.

“These travel trailers were picked up, thrown a considerable distance and just mangled,” Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said.

John Bel Edwards said it was a “minor miracle” that more people had not been killed because most of the trailers were occupied when the storm hit.

At least 30 people were taken to hospital in Louisiana, most of them from the trailer park.

The other death occurred near the southern Mississippi town of Purvis, the National Weather Service said.

A tornado was also reported in the northern Florida town of Pensacola, the weather service said.

According to local media, three buildings in an apartment complex had been badly damaged and thousands of people in the region were without power.