A total of 11 people have been killed in Texas tornadoes, police say, raising the death toll to 29 in a week of storms across the South and Midwest.
At least eight people died in Garland, near Dallas, five of them when their cars were blown off a motorway. Three bodies were found in other towns.
In west Texas the problem was snow – high winds caused drifts that have made a number of roads impassable.
The storms across the South have been unusually powerful for winter.
According to Texas reports, churches were destroyed, cars mangled and trees toppled across a 20 mile zone from south of Dallas up to suburbs in the north-east.
In December 27 briefing, Lt. Pedro Barineau, of Garland police, said 600 buildings had been damaged.
The Red Cross is setting up shelters for those with damaged homes.
Police said all street and highway lights had been knocked out, leaving officers working in the dark overnight.
Two people were found dead at a petrol station in Copeville, and a third was killed in Blue Ridge, reports in local media said.
Kevin Taylor, a church pastor in Glenn Heights, south of Dallas, described to WFAA how his church began collapsing around him.
While extreme weather in the US around Christmas is not unknown, meteorologists say that unseasonably high temperatures in some areas contributed to the severity of the storms.
The forecast for the eastern US is of continuing high temperatures – Washington DC pushed close to 70F on December 27.
A year ago, a tornado hit south-eastern Mississippi, killing five people and injuring dozens more.
A storm on Christmas Day in 2012 which included several tornadoes damaged homes from Texas to Alabama.
At least 8 people are reported to have been killed in Texas in new tornadoes, raising the death toll to 26 in a week of storms across the South and Midwest.
Five people died when their cars were reportedly blown off a highway in Garland, near Dallas. Another three bodies were found in nearby towns.
Texas and Oklahoma could suffer a “historic blizzard”, bringing up to 16in of snow, officials say.
The storms across the South have been unusually powerful for winter.
Reports from Texas said churches were destroyed, cars mangled and trees toppled across a wide area.
Photo CBS News
Garland police believed that “winds from a tornado that passed through” the town late on Saturday were the cause of car accidents, Melinda Urbina from the Dallas County Sheriff’s office said.
At least five people were reported dead in the cars.
Melinda Urbina said the winds “tossed the cars around”, and the vehicles were later found below Interstate 30, about 15 miles north-east of Dallas.
She also urged local residents to stay off the roads.
Police officers in Garland are now trying to determine whether they were any other casualties at the crash site.
“We’re dealing with darkness out here,” police spokesman Mike Hatfield was quoted as saying by the Dallas News website.
“All of the street lights and highway lights are out,” he added.
Two people were found dead at a petrol station in Copeville, and a third was killed in Blue Ridge, reports in local media said.
The storms have damaged a number of buildings in the area.
Kevin Taylor, a church pastor in Glenn Heights, south of Dallas, described to WFAA how his church began collapsing around him.
“Doors began to turn inward, when I saw that I figured the glass was going to shatter and hit me in the face, so I broke and ran down the hallway and by the time I got just a few feet everything collapsed and went dark and fell on top of me,” he said.
He added: “By the grace of God I’m here though.”
At least 30,000 people were reportedly without power, and there were reports of burst gas lines.
The National Weather Service confirmed that several tornadoes had touched down near Dallas and other towns in northern Texas.
The deaths in Dallas come as much of the south-central region of the US has been hit by severe weather in the past week.
According to official reports, at least 17 people have been killed and dozens injured in Oklahoma and Texas following record rainfall over the weekend.
At least four deaths have been blamed on the storm in the Houston area. The storm led to major flooding and tornadoes sweeping across the southern part of America.
More heavy rains are expected over the next few days.
Parts of Houston – the US’s fourth most populous city – remain under water.
Thousands of cars have been abandoned on city streets and highways.
Scores of residents have been displaced and more than 1,000 homes have been destroyed.
The number of people killed in Texas and Oklahoma is expected to rise as more bodies are discovered, officials say.
By May 26, most rivers in Houston were reported to have receded back within their banks.
The floodwaters affected virtually every part of the city, officials say, bringing some areas to a standstill.
Fire fighters rescued scores of stranded motorists and at least 2,500 vehicles were abandoned by drivers, officials said.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has declared a state of emergency in 24 counties in Texas.
The bad weather does not appear to be coming to an end – forecasts have predicted a 20% to 40% chance of thunderstorms for the rest of the week in Houston.
The effects of the massive storms were also felt near the Texas border in Mexico.
On May 25, at least 14 people – including an infant – were killed by a tornado that hit the northern Mexico border city of Acuna.
Mexican authorities said that more than 1,000 homes were damaged by the storm.
Texas often experiences long periods of drought, despite heavy rainfall at times.
As of the week of May 19, areas in central Texas were experiencing abnormal to severe levels of drought, with 795,851 residents affected, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
A tornado struck Ciudad Acuna in northern Mexico, near the Texas border, killing at least 13 people.
Cidad Acuna is just two miles from Texas’ Laughlin Air Force base, the largest pilot training base in the US.
About 300 homes have been damaged or destroyed in Ciudad Acuna, in Coahuila state, according to a press statement from the Coahuila Government.
Images from the scene showed cars upended and leaning against buildings.
Dozens of people have been injured and officials warned that the death toll could rise.
Coahuila Governor Ruben Moreira, on a visit to the stricken area, said 10 adults and three children had died and a baby was missing. Another 150 people had been taken to hospital, he said.
Photo Twitter
“Most of the dead are people who were outside, not people who were inside their homes,” said Ciudad Acuna Mayor Evaristo Lenin Perez.
Rescuers were searching the 750 damaged properties for more casualties.
Witnesses said a bus had been flipped over by the tornado.
“There are cars on top of houses, there are dead people lying in the street, it is total chaos,” said local resident Maria del Rosario Ramirez, quoted by Mexican newspaper La Jornada.
Victor Zamora, Coahuila’s interior secretary, said an area of about seven blocks had been “devastated” by the tornado, which struck at about 06:10.
The interior department said state officials were coordinating a response.
Severe weather is also affecting southern US states including Texas.
A dozen people are missing after flash floods struck the Blanco River in central Texas on May 24. The floods also damaged hundreds of homes, some of them swept off their foundations.
A tornado damaged a block of flats in Houston over the weekend.
A tornado has ripped through Texas town of Granbury resulting in six deaths, officials say.
Homes were destroyed when the tornado hit Granbury, 70 miles west of Dallas, late on Wednesday.
Local officials warned the toll could climb as rescue teams search through the rubble of affected houses. Dozens of people have been injured and are receiving treatment at local hospitals.
Severe weather has been reported across the region.
One resident described the tornado’s impact to Reuters: “The house started shaking. We were in a closet.”
Homes were destroyed when the tornado hit Granbury, 70 miles west of Dallas, late on Wednesday
“You could hear it – it sounded like a train going off. It was scary,” he said
The same storm spawned another tornado that tore through part of the town of Cleburne, about 25 miles south-east of Granbury, the National Weather Service said.
There have been no reports of any fatalities from Cleburne so far.
However, dozens of homes have been destroyed or badly damaged, according to officials and residents.
A third tornado in neighboring Parker County has also caused damage to buildings, particularly in the town of Millsap, officials say.
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