The total death toll currently stands at 26 people across eight states, with tens of thousands left without electricity, a US broadcaster reported late Saturday.
About 140,000 people remain without power in Pennsylvania as a result of tornadoes, nearly 82,000 in Ohio and over 65,000 in Virginia, according to data from the PowerOutage.us portal.
Media reported on Saturday that a tornado hit Little Rock, the capital of Arkansas and the state's most populated city, severely damaging and destroying many houses. Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency and deployed the National Guard, pledging to spare no effort to restore the state.
Earlier reports said that at least 18 people had died in multiple states, including Arkansas, Mississippi, Iowa, Tennessee, Illinois and Wisconsin, and over 28 million people were under a tornado watch.