Nine tornadoes struck Missouri and Kentucky on May 16, including a deadly EF3 in Scott County that killed two people and destroyed homes. The National Weather Service confirmed tornadoes up to EF4 strength.

More than two dozen people were killed and dozens more injured as powerful tornadoes and severe storms ripped across Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia and even parts of the Washington, D.

Recent tornadoes have claimed the lives of at least 28 people. In response, Operation Blessing and Mercy Chefs deployed teams to the hardest-hit area of London, Kentucky.

Authorities in Kentucky expect the death toll of 14 to increase as they continue to search the ravaged areas. Nine of the dead were in Laurel County, where a tornado hit just before midnight on May 16, the sheriff's office said. Many more were injured there.

At least 27 people have died in Kentucky and seven more were killed in Missouri -- five of them in the St. Louis area.

The tornado, which ripped across the largely rural area and extended to the London Corbin Airport, hit shortly before midnight.

Portsmouth-based Mercy Chefs, a disaster relief organization, is providing aid in Kentucky and Missouri following a deadly tornado outbreak in the region.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Storm systems sweeping across parts of the Midwest and South have left at least 21 dead, many of them in Kentucky, where what appeared to be a devastating tornado crumbled buildings and flipped a car over on an interstate.

Additionally, there was no evidence that tornado sirens in the area had been deactivated by the Trump administration's budget cuts — if there was, the people affected by the storm certainly would have noted that fact in interviews.