At least 21 people – including two children from the same family – have lost their lives and hundreds of buildings have been damaged by storms that tornadoes in the states of USA Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kentucky.

Severe weather has been hitting the southern part of the country since Saturday, with tornadoes sweeping everything in their path.

The phenomena continue their course towards the Atlantic coast. Strong thunderstorms and possible tornadoes are expected this afternoon local time in the Great Lakes region, in the southeastern part of the country, according to the US weather service (NWS).

The Weather Service warned of additional storms moving through the Ohio and Tennessee valleys, bringing damaging winds, large amounts of hail and more tornadoes, as well as torrential rain that could cause flash flooding.

Killer tornadoes

In the Kentucky, four people were killed after a series of tornadoes also caused “significant damage” to the power grid. According to the website poweroutage.us, about 165,000 households were left in the dark in that state and more than 500,000 across the region.

Also yesterday as the storms moved northeast, bringing more severe weather to the heartland of the US, one person was killed by a tree that fell due to strong winds of about 128 kilometers per hour in Louisville.

In its northwestern part Arkansasat least 8 people died from the severe storms.

At least 7 people were killed and nearly 100 injured Saturday night when a powerful tornado hit communities in the northern Texas near the Oklahoma border, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said yesterday, Sunday, at a press conference.

Among the dead are two children aged 2 and 5 from the same family, he added.

Over 200 houses and other structures were reported destroyed, while another 120 buildings were damaged in an area spanning over 80 km,

According to the sheriff, two other people died in its western part Oklahoma due to another tornado.