Twenty-two people were killed in powerful hurricanes and storms that struck the central and southern United States, destroying a large number of buildings, according to a new death toll announced by the authorities on Saturday.

Seven people were killed in East Memphis, McNairy County, Tennessee, Maggie Henan, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Disaster Management Agency, told AFP.

These are added to 15 other deaths in the states of Arkansas, Mississippi and Alabama in the south of the country, Indiana and Illinois in the middle east and Delaware on the east coast.

And in the state of Delaware, a "building collapse" in Sussex killed one person on Saturday night, according to the county rescue center.

And the Meteorological Administration warned neighboring states such as Pennsylvania and New York of strong winds and possible tornadoes.

Devastating tornadoes hit Arkansas Friday, where at least five people were killed, rural southern state governor Sarah Huckabee said at a news conference.

Mississippi Disaster Management Services reported that one person was killed and two injured in Pontotoc County, 200 kilometers south of Memphis.

An elderly person was killed in Alabama when a tornado hit his home, according to authorities in Huntsville, near the Tennessee border.

At least 650,000 homes were cut off on Saturday in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Kentucky and West Virginia, according to the American Power Outrigger website.

Hurricanes are a phenomenon that is difficult to predict, and they are frequent in the United States, especially in the center and south of the country.

A week ago, a tornado hit Mississippi, killing 25 people and causing extensive property damage.

President Joe Biden inspected the site on Friday.

In December 2021, about eighty people were killed after hurricanes hit Kentucky.