Storm clouds move over I-49 near Nevada, Mo., Sunday, April 27, 2014. Severe thunderstorm warnings were issued for the area. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner) (Associated Press) 
 
 A K-9 rescue unit walks along Military Street in Baxter Springs, Kan., April 27, 2014, as they survey the damage from Sunday's tornado. A powerful storm system rumbled through the central and southern... (Associated Press) 
 
 A vehicle tops a hill along U.S. Route 56 as a severe thunderstorm moves through the area near Baldwin City, Kan., Sunday, April 27, 2014. Severe storms are expected in the area most of the day. (AP Photo/Orlin... (Associated Press) 
 
 A officer talks to people at 15th and Military following Sunday's tornado in Baxter Springs, Kan., Sunday April 27, 2014. A powerful storm system rumbled through the central and southern United States... (Associated Press) 
 
 Motorists check out a travel trailer damaged in an accident involving high winds from a severe thunderstorm that passed near Rich Hill, Mo., Sunday, April 27, 2014. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner) (Associated Press) 
 
 John Ward, an automobile and RV dealer, looks an tornado damage to one of his trucks in Mayflower, Ark., Sunday, April 27, 2014. A tornado struck the dealer's on lot Sunday. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston) (Associated Press) 
 
 DELETES REFERENCE TO DEATH TOLL - Quapaw, Okla., residents survey the damage in a residential neighborhood struck by a tornado on Sunday evening, April 27, 2014. A powerful storm system rumbled through... (Associated Press) 
 
 A man walks past a wrecked automobile and RV on Interstate 40 in Mayflower, Ark., Sunday, April 27, 2014. A powerful storm system rumbled through the central and southern United States on Sunday, spawning... (Associated Press) 
 
 Twisted trees and power lines remain in a residential block near Military Avenue following the tornado in Baxter Springs, Kan., Sunday, April 27, 2014. A powerful storm system rumbled through the central... (Associated Press) 
 
 Travel trailers and motor homes are piled on top of each other at Mayflower RV in Mayflower, Ark., Sunday, April 27, 2014.A powerful storm system rumbled through the central and southern United States... (Associated Press) 
 
 DELETES REFERENCE TO DEATH TOLL - First responders, volunteers and firemen gather on Main Street in Quapaw, Okla. after a tornado struck the city on Sunday evening, April 27, 2014. A powerful storm... (Associated Press) ||||| An 11-month-old boy who was trapped with his mother inside their home by a powerful twister in eastern North Carolina died on Sunday — the first tornado-related death of 2014. 
 
 People passing by the wreckage after the tornado Friday heard the woman and helped free her and her injured baby. He died at a hospital in Norfolk, Virginia, NBC station WAVY reported. 
 
 11-month-old Gavin Soto died from injuries sustained during a tornado on Friday. Family photo via WAVY.com 
 
 North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory toured the devastation left by two EF2 tornadoes in Beaufortd and Chowan counties on Sunday and visited the collapsed home, the station said. 
 
 On Friday, a string of tornadoes ripped through the area, causing 25 injuries, though the baby boy is believed to have been the only person critically injured. 
 
 More than 300 homes and structures were destroyed or severely damaged by the storm system. 
 
 Julia Jarema, a spokeswoman for North Carolina's Department of Public Safety, confirmed to NBC News that the 11-month-old boy, who suffered critical injuries in a tornado this past Friday, died on Sunday morning. 
 
 He was from Chowan County in the northeastern part of the state. 
 
 His death was the first tornado-related death since Dec. 21, 2013. 
 
 —Jeff Black ||||| Mayflower, Arkansas (CNN) -- Tornadoes tore through several states Sunday evening as severe weather slammed into parts of the central United States. 
 
 Authorities confirmed at least nine fatalities: eight in Arkansas and one in Oklahoma. 
 
 Damage is "widespread" after a tornado hit Mayflower, Arkansas, and there are numerous reports of injuries, said Matt DeCample, a spokesman for the state's governor. 
 
 Damage is also widespread in Vilonia, north of Little Rock, he said. 
 
 "I can't even get down the main street down to the middle of town," Vilonia Mayor James Firestone said. 
 
 "I am trying to make my way through the downed trees and power lines. What I am seeing, it is a lot of damage. I've been listening to the rescue folks. They're saying people have to be extracted from vehicles. ... It looks pretty bad. From what I understand, there has been a subdivision that's been leveled." 
 
 In Mayflower, overturned, smashed cars were visible along the freeway as search and rescue teams combed the area. 
 
 Video from CNN affiliate KARK showed a decimated building in Mayflower surrounded by scattered debris and emergency vehicles. 
 
 Interstate 40 was shut down as authorities removed debris from the highway after the tornado struck Mayflower, said Arkansas State Patrol spokesman Bill Sadler. Mayflower is roughly 25 miles northwest of Little Rock. 
 
 The National Weather Service's Little Rock office tweeted a series of messages warning of tornadoes, reporting damage and telling residents to take cover. 
 
 A tornado crossing I-40 "was reported to be as much as a half-mile wide," the weather service said. Officials reported overturned semi-trucks and destroyed homes, the weather service said. 
 
 Witnesses also spotted a twister in the Oklahoma town of Quapaw on Sunday, an emergency official said, as severe weather slammed into parts of the central United States. 
 
 Joe Dan Morgan, emergency manager in Ottawa County, Oklahoma, said ambulances had deployed after reports of a funnel on the ground in Quapaw, and rescuers were working in an area where a concrete wall crashed onto a car. 
 
 Numerous buildings in the town were damaged, said Keli Cain with Oklahoma Emergency Management. 
 
 Kelly Flecks, an emergency dispatcher in Ottawa County, also said a tornado hit the town. 
 
 "Search and rescue is under way involving several agencies," she said. "Please tell the public to stay away so they can do their jobs. We can't confirm anything else at the moment. 
 
 Quapaw is in the northeastern part of the state, near the borders with Kansas and Missouri. 
 
 Also Sunday evening, a tornado emergency was declared for Maumelle, Arkansas, the weather service said. Maumelle is also northwest of Little Rock in central Arkansas. 
 
 Storm spotters were tracking a confirmed tornado with reports of damage, the weather service said. A tornado emergency is issued when a storm is producing a life-threatening, confirmed tornado capable of significant destruction. 
 
 Strong tornadoes, damaging winds, and large hail were expected for parts of the Central Plains and along the Mississippi River Valley on Sunday, CNN meteorologists said. 
 
 Forecasters from the weather service warned that numerous tornadoes could hit, "with a few intense tornadoes likely." Large hail and damaging winds are also possible, forecasters said. 
 
 Storm chasers and witnesses posted images of twisters in several states on social media. 
 
 Mike Smith from TeamBCX shared a picture of white funnel spinning against a dark sky near a field in Baxter Springs, Kansas, where there were several reports of damage from a tornado Sunday. 
 
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 CNN's Devon Sayers reported from Mayflower. CNN's Dave Alsup and Matthew Stucker reported from Atlanta. CNN's Chad Myers, Catherine E. Shoichet and Sean Morris contributed to this report. ||||| 1 of 20. People sift through the rubble of what is left of homes after a tornado hit the town of Vilonia April 28, 2014. 
 
 VILONIA, Arkansas (Reuters) - A ferocious storm system caused a twister in Mississippi and threatened tens of millions of people across the U.S. Southeast on Monday, a day after it spawned tornadoes that killed 16 people and tossed cars like toys in Arkansas and other states. 
 
 A tornado went through Tupelo, Mississippi in the northern part of the state at about 3 p.m. (1800 GMT), damaging hundreds of homes, downing power lines and toppling trees, Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant told CNN. 
 
 There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries after six instances of tornadoes touching down in the state. 
 
 "It is not over. This is going to be a prolonged storm," Bryant said. 
 
 Parts of Alabama, western Georgia and Tennessee also were at risk as the storm system that produced the series of tornadoes headed east toward the Mid-Atlantic states. 
 
 Rescue workers, volunteers and victims have been sifting through the rubble in the hardest-hit state of Arkansas, looking for survivors in central Faulkner County where a tornado reduced homes to splinters, snapped power lines and mangled trees. 
 
 Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe said at least 14 people died statewide in the storm that authorities said produced the first fatalities of this year's U.S. tornado season. He previously told a news conference 16 had been killed but later said there was a mistake in calculation. 
 
 Nine of the victims came from the same street in the town of Vilonia, with a population of about 4,100, where a new intermediate school set to open in August was heavily damaged by a tractor trailer blown into its roof. A steel farm shop anchored to concrete was erased from the landscape. 
 
 Beebe told reporters of the capricious nature of tornadoes. He said a woman died when the door of her home's reinforced safe room collapsed, while a father and three daughters survived by seeking shelter in a bathtub that was flipped over in winds that leveled the house. 
 
 One person was killed in neighboring Oklahoma and another in Iowa, state authorities said. 
 
 'LONG ROAD TO HEALING' 
 
 "Everything is just leveled to the ground," Vilonia resident Matt Rothacher said. "It cut a zig-zag right through town." 
 
 Rothacher was at home with his wife and four children when the tornado passed through. While his home survived, The Valley Church where he serves as pastor was flattened. 
 
 Two elementary school-aged boys died in their home after having a pizza dinner at a friend's home, said Rothacher, who was helping provide grief counseling to the family that had sent the two boys home after they finished their meal as the storm approached. 
 
 The home that the boys left survived the tornado. The home the boys returned to did not, Rothacher said. 
 
 "These homes, these lives, won't be put back together anytime soon. It will be a long road to healing for these families." 
 
 The White House said President Barack Obama, who has been on a trip abroad, called Beebe to receive an update on the damage and to offer his condolences. 
 
 Medical officials reported at least 100 people in Arkansas were injured. 
 
 "It's so heartbreaking. I've never seen destruction like this before," U.S. Representative Tim Griffin told reporters after touring Vilonia, which was previously hit by a tornado about three years ago. "I saw a Dr. Seuss book in the rubble. I saw a Spider-Man shirt in the rubble. It just breaks your heart." 
 
 The roar of heavy equipment filled the air in Vilonia and nearby Mayflower as crews worked to clear debris off the streets or to load rubble onto trucks for removal. 
 
 TORNADO WARNING PERSISTS 
 
 The National Weather Service said the threat of tornadoes will last for several days as a strong weather system interacts with a large area of instability across the central and southern United States. 
 
 "This is a multi-day event and today is the second day of significant tornado risk and unfortunately, probably not the last," said Bill Bunting, operations chief at the National Weather Service's Storm Predictions Center in Norman, Oklahoma. 
 
 North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory declared a state of emergency for four counties where tornadoes hit on Friday and warned that more rough weather was on the way. 
 
 More than 10,000 people were without power in Arkansas on Monday morning, officials said. 
 
 The Arkansas National Guard was deployed to sift through the wreckage. Beebe declared a state of disaster for Faulkner and two other counties. 
 
 A tornado in Baxter Springs, Kansas that touched down on Sunday evening destroyed as many as 70 homes and 25 businesses and injured 34 people, of whom nine were hospitalized, state and county officials said. One person was killed in Kansas, likely due to the same storm system, officials said. 
 
 (Additional reporting by Steve Barnes and Suzi Parker in Little Rock, Carey Gillam and Kevin Murphy in Kansas City, Missouri, Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee, Wi,. Lisa Bose McDermott in Texarkana, Ark., and Curtis Skinner in New York; Writing by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Scott Malone, Bernadette Baum, Chris Reese and Cynthia Osterman)
– At least 17 people were killed as a massive storm system ripped through the central and southern US yesterday, spawning deadly tornadoes in Arkansas and Oklahoma. Tornadoes also touched down in Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and Missouri, reports the AP, which puts the death toll at 16 in Arkansas and one in Oklahoma. More: The Little Rock suburb of Vilonia was one of the hardest-hit towns, with at least 10 people dead and other victims believed to be buried under rubble, Reuters reports. The county sheriff says there is a "mass casualty situation" with numerous people injured. "There's just really nothing there anymore," says the local school superintendent. "We're probably going to have to start all over again." Damage is widespread in other suburbs of Little Rock, where the National Weather Service urged residents to take cover after a tornado seen crossing Interstate 40 "was reported to be as much as a half-mile wide," CNN reports. The AP reports a path of devastation some 80 miles long. In North Carolina, meanwhile, where a string of tornadoes damaged hundreds of homes on Friday, an 11-month-old boy has become the state's first tornado-related death of the year. He died in the hospital two days after passersby helped free him and his mother from the wreckage of their home, NBC reports.