People who lived through storms that spawned tornadoes in at least eight US states say that things were flying around and buildings were destroyed.

At least 26 people have died and many more have been hurt after storms and tornadoes hit towns and cities in the South and Midwest of the United States.

At least eight states were hit by tornadoes on Friday night, destroying homes, businesses, and trees. These tornadoes were part of a large storm system that also caused wildfires in the southern plains states and blizzard conditions in the upper Midwest.

shutterstock.com

Storms covered a large part of the country, where about 85 million people live, cutting power to tens of thousands of homes.

There were nine deaths in Tennessee, four deaths in nearby Arkansas, and four deaths in Illinois. The states of Indiana, Alabama, and Mississippi also reported other deaths.

In Arkansas, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency and called up 100 members of the National Guard to help local authorities.

Four of the people who died in Arkansas were from the town of Wynne, which has about 8,000 people. Residents of the town were shocked when they woke up on Saturday and saw that the high school's roof was shredded and its windows were blown out. Huge trees were lying on the ground, and their stumps were all but gone. Homes and businesses had holes in them from broken walls, windows, and roofs.

Inside the shells of homes and on the lawns were pieces of clothing, insulation, roofing paper, toys, broken furniture, and a pick-up truck with shattered windows.

Ashley Macmillan told The Associated Press that she, her husband, their children, and their dogs all huddled together in a small bathroom during a tornado and "prayed and said goodbye to each other because we thought we were going to die." The tree that fell on their house did a lot of damage, but no one in the family was hurt.

"The house was shaking, and we could hear loud noises and dishes clanking. "Then everything was quiet," she said.

Authorities say that at least one person was killed and more than two dozen were hurt, some of them very badly, in the Little Rock area of Arkansas.

The mayor of Little Rock, Frank Scott, said that 2,100 homes and businesses were in the path of the tornado, but no one had checked to see how many were damaged.

Don Nichols, the manager of a piano store in Little Rock, said that when the tornado hit, he hid under the stairs of his store.

"Our store wasn't too badly damaged. "Only one window was blown out, and some tiles fell from the ceiling," he told Al Jazeera. "The restaurant next door is closed, though. The walls were pulled right out."

David Leckner, the mayor of Adamsville, said that at least seven people died in McNairy County, which is east of Memphis and on the border with Mississippi.

"Most of the damage was done to homes and residential areas," Leckner said, adding that it seemed like everyone was safe, but crews were going door to door to make sure.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES