'Total chaos': Tornadoes, storms kill four, injure dozens across South

Emergency personnel across parts of the Deep South were searching for survivors Tuesday after storms and dozens of suspected tornadoes raced through the region, killing at least four people, tearing through homes and businesses and toppling trees and power lines.

At least a dozen people were injured, and damage was reported in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Tens of thousands of customers were without power at the height of Monday's storms.

One person died in a flood in Greenup County, Kentucky, early Tuesday.

A woman was killed in Louisiana. A couple died in Alabama, where the injured included a 7-year-old child rushed to a Birmingham, Alabama, hospital.

“It was total chaos,“ Lawrence County, Alabama, Coroner Scott Norwood said of the destruction. “We had to make due the best we could.”

The National Weather Service was also sending survey teams to assess damage in Sumter, Marengo, Hale, Bibb, Shelby and Chilton counties.

In all, there were 27 reports of tornadoes across the region on Monday, the Storm Prediction Center said.

In Louisiana, Vernon Parish Sheriff Sam Craft said Betty Patin, 59, was killed when her mobile home was destroyed by an apparent tornado. During the worst of the storm, the weather service's Storm Prediction Center warned that a "strong to potentially intense tornado with potential peak winds of 110 to 155 mph is likely ongoing" in the county.

The tornado was on the ground for 63 miles, according to the National Weather Service in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

“I don’t know what our records for the longest total in this area is," but that's got to be close, meteorologist Donald Jones said.

In Alexandria, Louisiana, students at a religious school were evacuated to the church before the tornado ripped off the school’s roof, Police Cpl. Wade Bourgeois said.

“We are blessed,” Alexandria Mayor Jeffrey W. Hall said. “This could have been so much worse. But we have had no loss of life, and that’s the most important thing."

'We've got damage at lots of places:' 3 dead as tornadoes rip South

Several school systems in Alabama and Mississippi dismissed students early Monday and canceled afternoon events and activities as a precaution since storms were forecast to be moving through around the usual dismissal times.

More storms were forecast across the Southeast on Tuesday, especially portions of the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida, the Storm Prediction Center said.

December tornadoes aren’t unusual. Monday was the 19th anniversary of a Southeastern tornado outbreak that produced a twister that killed 11 people in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Also, storms on Dec. 1, 2018, spawned more than two dozen tornadoes in the Midwest.

Contributing: Jordan Culver, USA TODAY; The Associated Press.