TODAY's Lester Holt, NBC's Tom Costello and the Weather Channel's Mike Seidel report from throughout the region.
By NBC News, msnbc.com staff and news services
Updated at 1:30 p.m. ET
HENRYVILLE, Ind. -- Tens of thousands of people were without power, new areas were under tornado watches or warnings and survivors dug through debris after Friday's twisters that killed more than 30 people, injured hundreds and destroyed or damaged hundreds of?homes.
The storms scratched away small towns in Indiana and cut off rural communities in Kentucky and authorities feared the already ugly death toll would rise as daylight broke on Saturday's search for survivors.
"It's all gone," Andy Bell said of his neighborhood in Henryville, Ind., as he guarded a friend's demolished service garage, not far from where a school bus stuck out from the side of a restaurant and a parking lot where a small classroom chair jutted from a car window.
"It was beautiful," he said, looking around. "And now it's just gone. I mean, gone."
Tornado warnings were issued Saturday for parts of southeast Georgia, and several small twisters were reported that?took down trees but caused no injuries. Parts of northern Florida were under a tornado watch, which indicates a less imminent?threat.
On Friday,?twisters crushed entire blocks of homes, ripped power lines from broken poles and tossed cars, school buses and tractor-trailers onto roadways.
At least 37 people died, according to a death toll count Saturday morning, but the scale of the devastation made an immediate assessment of the havoc's full extent all but impossible.
In Kentucky, where at?some 300 people were injured and 17,000 without power, the National Guard and state police searched wreckage for an unknown number of missing.
In Indiana, authorities searched rural communities that officials said "are completely gone."
One person was known to have died in hard-hit Henryville, a town of about 2,000 north of Louisville, Ky., and?the birthplace of Kentucky Fried Chicken founder Col. Harland Sanders.
Severe storms and tear through the midwest and southern states.
Survivors walked down littered streets with shopping carts full of water and food, handing it out to anyone in need. Hundreds of firefighters and police zipped around a town where few recognizable structures remained; all of Henryville's schools were destroyed.
Survivors recall 'crash, bang, break' at school
Susie Renner, 54, said she saw two tornadoes barreling down on Henryville within minutes of each other. The first was brown from being filled with debris; the second was black.
"I'm a storm chaser," Renner said, "and I have never been this frightened before."
NBC meteorologist Bill Karins looks at the factors that may make this March a record-breaking month for Midwest twisters.
Friday's outbreak came two days after an earlier round of storms killed 13 people in the Midwest and South, and forecasters at the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center had said the day would be one of a handful this year that warranted its highest risk level. By 10 p.m., the weather service had issued 269 tornado warnings. Only 189 warnings were issued in all of February.
"We knew this was coming. We were watching the weather like everyone else," said Clark County, Ind., Sheriff Danny Rodden. "This was the worst case scenario. There's no way you can prepare for something like this."
Nearly 100 tornadoes were reported on Friday, but the final number will be smaller once duplicate reports are filtered out.
A total of 14 people were reported killed in Indiana, including four in Chelsea, where a man, woman and their 4-year-old great-grandchild died in one house. Tony Williams, owner of the Chelsea General Store, said the child and mother were huddled in a basement when the storm hit and sucked the 4-year-old out her hands. The mother survived, but her 70-year-old grandparents were upstairs; both died.
"They found them in the field, back behind the house," Williams said.
Residents of Henryville, Indiana, are left to sift through debris after powerful tornadoes ripped through the town Friday afternoon. NBC's Cara Kneer reports.
Two people also died further north in Holton, where it appeared a tornado cut a diagonal swath down the town's tiny main drag, demolishing a cinderblock gas station in one spot and leaving a tiny white church intact down the road. Officials also confirmed three deaths in nearby Scott County and another four in Washington County further west.
"We are going to continue to hit every county road that we know of that there are homes on and search those homes," said Indiana State Police Sgt. Jerry Goodin. "We have whole communities and whole neighborhoods that are completely gone."
The death toll stood at 19 in Kentucky, the Associated Press reported. Ohio saw three deaths, and Alabama one.
Live tornado updates on breakingnews.com
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Tornadoes were reported in at least six Ohio cities and towns, including the village of Moscow, where a council member found dead in her home was one of at least three people killed in the state.
Several dozen homes were damaged, some stripped down to their foundations, and the Clermont County commissioners called a state of emergency for the first time in 15 years.
Alabama was hit by two sets of storms, one in the morning and one in the evening.
NBC News, msnbc.com staff and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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