Flood waters cover a street in a mobile home park in Pelham, Alabama, on April 7, 2014.
Severe thunderstorms crawled across the US southeast on Monday, dumping heavy rains and causing flash flooding in central Alabama, where crews in small boats and military trucks had to rescue more than two dozen people from their homes and cars.
In Mississippi, a 9-year-old girl was missing and feared swept away in a flash flood after the storm dropped nearly 7 inches (18 centimetres) of rain over the last two days. A possible tornado damaged homes hurt seven people in another part of the state.
The storms hit Mississippi on Sunday and spread overnight into Alabama and Georgia. Strong winds downed trees, power lines and snarled rush hour commutes.
In Pelham, just south of Birmingham, more than 4 inches (10 centimetres) of rain fell from 7 p.m. on Sunday to 7 a.m. on Monday. Police and firefighters rescued people who became trapped in townhomes and a mobile home park that flooded because of a nearby swollen creek.
Dozens of cars had water up to their roofs, and fast-moving water rushed by the bottoms of the mobile homes. Rescue workers wearing life jackets waded through muddy water nearly to their chests to reach stranded residents. Hundreds of more people in mobile homes on higher ground were isolated because water covered the only entrance to the complex. Street signs stuck out of the high water.
At an apartment complex in the suburb of Homewood, rescue crews used a boat to help several residents and pets get out of flooded first-floor units.
Some roads in Birmingham became impassable, and schools delayed opening in many areas of central Alabama due to the heavy rains.
In Augusta, Georgia, where the Master's golf tournament is being held this week at Augusta National, practice round play was temporarily suspended Monday because of severe weather.
Alabama Power Co., the state's largest electric utility, reported 11,000 homes and businesses without power, with 6,200 in the Birmingham area.
In Mississippi, a 9-year-old girl was last seen playing in floodwater near her parents' house around 7 p.m. Sunday in Yazoo City, the Delta region northwest of Jackson. Search crews and volunteers looked for her in drainage ditches and other areas where water remained, police Maj. Tilmon Clifton told broadcaster WLBT-TV.
In metro Atlanta, heavy rains slowed cars on the interstates and traffic lights were knocked out. Rain was expected to continue for much of Monday and flood warnings were in effect across the region.
The National Weather Service also warned people that more tornadoes and severe thunderstorms were possible.