Tornadoes and flooding kill at least 11 in U.S. South, Midwest

At least 11 people have been killed by tornadoes or flooding in the South and Midwest by a storm that also dumped a rare late-season blizzard in western Kansas on Sunday.

Tornadoes hit several small towns in East Texas, killing four people. Three people were killed by flooding and winds in Arkansas, with officials saying two more people are missing. Rushing water swept away a car, drowning a woman in Missouri; and a death was reported in Sunday morning storms that raked Mississippi.

Flooding closed part of Interstate 44 near Hazelgreen, Mo., and officials expected it would be at least a day before the highway reopened. Interstate 70 in western Kansas was closed because crews were waiting for snow to subside that was falling at eight to 10 centimetres an hour that was being blown by 55 km/h winds. An Arkansas volunteer fire department chief was killed while working during storms in north-central Arkansas, state police said.

A two-year-old girl in Tennessee died after being struck by a metal soccer goalpost that was blown over by high winds, The Metro Nashville Police Department posted on its Twitter page on Sunday evening.

In Texas, search teams were going door to door Sunday after the tornadoes the day before flattened homes, uprooted trees and flipped several pickup trucks at a dealership

The storms cut a path of destruction 55 kilometres long and 25 kilometres wide in Van Zandt County, Everett said. The largely rural area is about 80 kilometres east of Dallas.

The National Weather Service found evidence of four tornadoes, with one twister possibly on the ground for 80 kilometres.