A whole roof lies in the street, ripped away from the rest of the building and now lying alongside the church it was designed to protect.
This is just one example of the widespread tornado damage in the US – and now more storms are forecast across an even wider area..
Kimberly, Alabama is one of many towns in the southern states where extreme weather has wreaked havoc, killing at least 30 people.
The tornadoes left even the emergency services powerless to come to the aid of those in need.
Kimberly’s fire station and engines lay under a layer of debris.
“I was standing right here and I heard a big wind come, almost like the train. So I went back inside and by the time I got back inside it started coming at us and then we all got down on the ground over there and it just wiped everything out,” said firefighter Don Lalonde.
Mississippi, along with Alabama, was hardest hit.
The cheap, prefabricated housing common in many parts of the South offered no protection from the tornadoes and strong winds.
Thousands of people have been forced from their homes. Tens of thousands were left without power, but at least their homes were still standing.
The next wave of storms threatens millions in populated areas – in parts of the South already devastated, and in several more states far to the northeast as far as Pennsylvania and Ohio.
