Toll Hits 18 as Winter Tornadoes Lash South

A severe storm system that spun off apparent tornadoes, pulverized mobile homes, and scattered other destruction around the Southeast has claimed at least 18 lives on a two-day assault on the region, authorities say. The enormous system put millions of people in the South on edge during a weekend of violent weather that destroyed homes, downed trees, and caused other damage in the hardest-hit communities from Mississippi to Georgia. The severe weather threat was still continuing Sunday night in some parts, extending into South Carolina and north Florida, the AP reports.

At least 14 people were killed Sunday in Georgia as the intense, fast-moving storms tore across the state, with at least one deadly tornado reported before dawn and violent storms still rumbling after nightfall. Four people were killed Saturday in Mississippi when the system began to ramp up. The deadliest toll came before daybreak Sunday when an apparent tornado blew through a mobile home park in Adel, south Georgia—about 60 miles southeast of Albany—upending homes and killing seven people. President Trump said Sunday he had spoken with Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal and "expressed our sincere condolences for the lives taken." "Tornadoes were vicious and powerful and strong, and they suffered greatly," Trump said. "So we'll be helping out the state of Georgia." (More severe weather stories.)