Tornado in central Mississippi leaves at least 1 dead, 2 dozen injured

At least one person died and about two dozen people were injured overnight after a tornado hit central Mississippi, health authorities said.

The tornado struck the town of Louin, about 70 miles east of Jackson, late on Sunday (June 17), the National Weather Service said, adding that multiple tornadoes could have hit the area. Authorities planned a damage assessment on Monday before releasing more details.

A spokeswoman for South Central Regional Medical Centre in Laurel said one person died while Jasper County officials said about two dozen people were injured.

The spokeswoman said most of the injured were in stable condition or had been discharged from emergency. The injury toll was expected to rise.

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Local media footage from Louin showed damage including destroyed fields and homes.

About 400,000 customers across the US South were without power on Monday morning, outage tracking website Poweroutage.us showed, including about 45,000 in Mississippi.

A dangerous heat wave had recently helped spawn deadly tornadoes in Texas and Florida and threatened to bring more extreme weather to the US South over the long Juneteenth weekend.

At least four people were killed in twisters that touched down on Thursday in the panhandles of Texas and Florida, where flooding also forced almost 150 people out of their homes, officials said.

Over 25 million people, most in Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi, were under an excessive heat warning.