At least nine people have been killed by tornadoes or flooding in the South and Midwest by a storm that also dumped a rare late-season blizzard in western Kansas.

Axar.az reports citing Independent.

Tornadoes hit several small towns in East Texas, killing four people. Three people were killed by flooding and winds in Arkansas, with officials saying two more people are missing. Rushing water swept away a car, drowning a woman in Missouri; and a death was reported in Sunday morning storms that raked Mississippi.

Flooding closed part of Interstate 44 near Hazelgreen, Missouri, and officials expected it would be at least a day before the highway reopened. Interstate 70 in western Kansas was closed because crews were waiting for snow falling at 3 to 4 inches (8 to 10 cm) an hour being blown by 35 mph (56 km/hr) winds to subside.

The National Weather Service found evidence of four tornadoes with one twister possibly on the ground for 50 miles (80 km).

The first reports of tornadoes came about 4:45 p.m. Saturday, but emergency crews were hampered by continuing severe weather, said Judge Don Kirkpatrick, the chief executive for Van Zandt County.

“We'd be out there working and get a report of another tornado on the ground,” he said.

The storms rolled through Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama on Sunday with strong winds causing isolated pockets of damage. In Durant in central Mississippi on person died in the storms. The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency didn't give details.

Alexa Haik went to bed Saturday night expecting just rain, but heard the sirens Sunday morning and turned on the television to see the tornado warning. She rounded up her pets and hid in a hallway with her family, then was stunned to emerge to trees down all in her neighbourhood in Clinton, Mississippi, about 20 miles (32 km) west of Jackson.

A trip up the road showed how isolated the worst of the storms were. “I really thought when we got out of our neighbourhood, there would be damage everywhere. But our little subdivision was the only one hit,” Ms Haik said.

Near Clever in southwestern Missouri, a man tried to save his 72-year-old wife from floodwaters that swept away their vehicle Saturday, but her body was found when the water receded, the Missouri State Highway Patrol said.