Tornado threat continues as southern towns assess damage

Tornadoes damaged numerous homes, destroyed a fire station, briefly trapped people in a grocery store and ripped the roof off an apartment complex in Mississippi and Alabama, and meteorologists said the threat of dangerous storms remained Wednesday near the Gulf Coast in Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Georgia.

The National Weather Service had warned that strong twisters capable of carving up communities over long distances were possible as the storm front moved eastward from Texas, threatening a stretch of the United States where more than 25 million people live. Emergency responders had no reports of fatalities but were waiting for daylight to make sure.

The “threat for supercells capable of all severe hazards continues,” forecasters said after multiple tornado warnings were issued starting Tuesday afternoon and continued through the night.