(CNN) – A tri-state area in the South has a significant chance of severe weather that could lead to tornadoes on Wednesday, a day after storms and tornadoes killed at least two people and injured more than two dozen others in the region.
A “particularly dangerous situation tornado watch” — issued only when the highest threats are expected, including long-track tornadoes — is in effect Wednesday until 8 p.m. CT for parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
Destructive storms were already underway by Wednesday afternoon, with at least one suspected tornado damaging homes — leaving people trapped — and a medical center in New Iberia in southern Louisiana, officials said.
The southern storms are part of a massive system that has also brought heavy snow – and blizzards in some places – to northern parts of the central US.
Wednesday brings a level 4 risk — the second-highest of five levels — of severe storms for nearly 3 million people in eastern Louisiana, including New Orleans; southern Mississippi, including Gulfport; and southwestern Alabama, including Mobile, according to the Storm Prediction Center.
That level means widespread severe storms are likely. A risk this high is rare for December; in December, only five have been rated that level in the past decade, a CNN Weather analysis shows.
“Numerous tornadoes are expected, with some intense tornadoes likely,” the forecast center said Wednesday afternoon.
Tornadoes were already reported in the region on Wednesday. In Louisiana, a tornado damaged several homes in the city of New Iberia on Wednesday morning, and rescue efforts are underway to free an unspecified number of people who were trapped, city police said.
The Iberia Medical Center also suffered “a significant amount of damage,” police Capt. Leland Laseter said on Facebook. CNN has requested comment from the medical center.
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Tornado damage at an apartment complex in Farmerville, Louisiana on Wednesday, December 14
Severe weather is also possible in surrounding areas: All told, about 14 million people from Louisiana to parts of Georgia are at some risk of severe weather on Wednesday, according to the forecast center.
Since Tuesday, there have been at least 22 tornado reports from Oklahoma and Texas to Louisiana and Mississippi, including 17 from Tuesday through 6 a.m. CT on Wednesday, and at least five since 6 a.m. CT on Wednesday, including in Louisiana’s New Iberia.
In addition to the severe weather, there is a moderate risk of excessive rainfall that could lead to flash flooding for parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and west-central Alabama on Wednesday, the forecast center says.
Tornadoes destroyed homes and businesses across the South on Tuesday
Wednesday’s threats come after Tuesday’s storms spawned tornadoes and splintered homes and businesses from Oklahoma and the Dallas-Fort Worth area to Mississippi — including Louisiana, where a boy and his mother were killed in one city and at least twenty others were injured in another.
A boy and his mother were found dead Tuesday in the northwestern Louisiana community of Keithville after a tornado destroyed their home, the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office said. The boy’s body was found Tuesday about a half-mile from the home, Sheriff Steve Prator told CNN affiliate KSLA.
The mother was found dead early Wednesday just down the street from where the house had been, and two other people from the community were injured, the sheriff’s office said.
About 100 miles away, in the small Union Parish town of Farmerville, Louisiana, at least 20 people were injured Tuesday evening when a tornado struck, said Detective Cade Nolan of the Farmerville Police Department.
Parts of an apartment complex and a mobile home park in the Farmerville area were demolished, with fallen trees and other debris littering the roads and fields, a CNN crew saw Wednesday.
Tiyia Stringfellow, her boyfriend and two young children were in her Farmerville apartment when the tornado damaged it Tuesday, she told CNN.
“We were sitting in the kitchen cupboard. All we heard was whistling, and my friend got up to look outside and he (saw) the tornado. The whole house shook and I (saw) my roof collapse, and the house went dark,” Stringfellow said, adding that none of them were injured.
In Wayne, Oklahoma, an EF2 tornado damaged homes, outbuildings and sheds early Tuesday, injuring no one, officials said. Houses were razed or had their roofs torn off, and trees were snapped like twigs, according to video from CNN affiliate KOCO.
In Texas, at least seven people were injured Tuesday morning when severe storms lashed the Dallas-Fort Worth area — including at least five injured around the city of Grapevine. Two tornado reports were made in Grapevine, where police said a shopping center and other businesses were damaged.
The other two people were injured Tuesday in Wise County, Texas, northwest of Fort Worth, county officials said. One was injured when winds overturned their vehicle, and the other — also in a vehicle — was injured by flying debris, officials said.
An EF2 tornado struck that county near the communities of Paradise and Decatur, damaging homes and businesses, officials said.
Houses were also left standing due to the heavy weather ruins Tuesday near the Texas city of Blue Ridge, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) northeast of downtown Dallas, according to video from CNN affiliate WFAA.