Tornadoes kill 2 and injure 6 in Texas, Mississippi as severe weather system moves east

A strong storm system threatened to spawn tornadoes across parts of the U.S. Southeast on Sunday, a day after severe weather left at least two people dead in Texas and Mississippi.

The National Weather Service’s severe storm tracker indicated the system was moving east from Alabama toward Georgia shortly before 4 a.m. The agency issued severe hurricane warnings with the possibility of tornadoes for western Georgia, the northwestern tip of Florida and elsewhere.

One person died in the Liverpool area, south of Houston, Texas, on Saturday. According to Madison Polston of the Brazoria County Sheriff’s Office, four people suffered injuries that were not considered serious.

The county had “multiple touchdown points” between Liverpool, Hillcrest Village and Alvin. Polston said officials were aware of about 10 damaged homes, but they were working to determine the extent of the damage.

In Mississippi, one person died in Adams County and two people were injured in Franklin County, according to the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.

The National Weather Service said two tornadoes touched down near the cities of Bude and Brandon, blowing roofs off several buildings.

At least six tornadoes appear to have touched down in the Houston area, although more may be discovered as crews set out to survey the damage. According to National Weather Service meteorologist Josh Lichter, there was damage in the area from both tornadoes and straight-line winds.

North of Houston, mobile homes were damaged or destroyed in Katy and Porter Heights, where doors were blown off a fire station, the weather service said.

Tornado damage was reported in the city of Athens, northern Alabama, northwest of Huntsville. Meteorologist Cheli Amin said a National Weather Service survey team was expected to begin assessing the damage Sunday morning.

Also Sunday, the National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm warning for parts of the Deep South as the line of storms moved east through Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. Wind gusts of up to 60 mph (97 kph) were expected in the Spartanburg, South Carolina area. Damage to trees and power lines was expected in several counties, while tornado warnings were in effect for parts of the state.

At 9 a.m. ET Sunday, about 65,000 customers were without power in Mississippi, down from 93,000 around 1 p.m., according to the electric utility tracking website PowerOutage.us. About 54,000 customers were without power in Georgia; 36,000, Alabama; 20,000, Louisiana; and 13,000, Texas.