Violent tornadoes and high winds decimated homes, wiped out schools and toppled semitractor-trailers as a monster storm that killed at least 32 people ripped its way across the central and southern U.

At least 12 fatalities have been reported in Missouri, according to the Missouri State Emergency Management Agency. The deaths come as a massive storm system moving across the country unleashed winds that damaged buildings, whipped up deadly dust storms and fanned more than 100 wildfires.

A severe weather system spawned intense, long-duration tornadoes that struck parts of Arkansas, Mississippi and Missouri, leaving some communities in tatters.

The threat of tornadoes in parts of the U.S. proved deadly as whipping winds moved east into the Mississippi Valley and Deep South on Saturday, with at least two people killed in south-central