A possible tornado causes serious damage in Deer Park, Texas 0:42
(CNN) --
More than a dozen tornadoes ripped through communities in Texas and Louisiana, damaging multiple homes and businesses, and the threat is expected to persist through Wednesday in other southern states.
A major multi-day storm is causing varying impacts across a large swath of the US this week, with parts of Alabama, Florida and Mississippi under a tornado watch until 5am Wednesday, while snow is also expected in the Midwest.
Damage from possible tornado near Houston is 'catastrophic', official says
“A winter storm will move into the Middle Mississippi Valley on Wednesday morning.
Areas of heavy snow and a wintry mix over Oklahoma and the Ozarks will expand northeast into the Ohio Valley through early Wednesday," the National Weather Service said on Twitter.
Mr. Electric employees Hector Vazquez, left, and Lucas Perry pass a phone around outside their office building where they were working when a powerful storm swept through Deer Park, Texas on Tuesday.
(Elizabeth Conley/Houston Chronicle/AP)
On Tuesday, the storm caused extensive damage to the Houston-area communities of Deer Park and Pasadena, where downed trees and debris littered the streets and thousands were without power as power lines were damaged.
“We have seen a lot of damage.
We have seen buildings that have collapsed,” Pasadena Mayor Jeff Wagner said.
Josh Bruegger, the city's police chief, described the damage as the worst he's seen in 25 years, adding: "For the next few days, we're going to have our hands full."
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In Deer Park, people at St. Hyacinth Catholic Church crouched in a hallway and closed all the doors when they heard what they believe was a tornado passing through the area, Rev. Reginald Samuels said.
"It got really loud, we heard glass breaking and the building was shaking, then it quieted down," Samuels told CNN, adding that no one was hurt.
Damage was also reported at a Deer Park nursing home, prompting the evacuation of about 60 residents Tuesday afternoon, Mayor Jerry Mouton told CNN.
There were no reports of injuries, according to Jerry Dilliard of the Atascocita Fire Department.
CNN reached out to the operator of the nursing home on Tuesday for more information.
While cleanup efforts are underway at Deer Park, city schools will close Wednesday, the district said.
John Liparito inspects storm damage Tuesday in Pasadena, Texas.
(David J. Phillip/AP)
“We hope this gives families a chance to recover from the stress of today's events, and we believe it is best for children to be with their parents or guardians after a natural disaster,” the district said in a statement sent to parents and staff on Tuesday night.
“It appears that many homes and businesses in our area sustained damage, and some neighborhoods remain without power at this time,” the statement continued.
Photos of the damage in Deer Park show tree limbs thrown on roads, roofs blown off buildings and damaged vehicles.
More than 100,000 homes and businesses in Texas and Arkansas were blacked out early Wednesday morning, according to the monitoring site PowerOutage.us.
As of 9 p.m. ET, at least 14 tornadoes had been reported in southeastern Texas and southwestern Louisiana.
In the Louisiana town of Beauregard, the sheriff's office reported significant damage to homes and other buildings, noting that roads were blocked and power lines were down.
Nearly 16,000 homes and businesses also lost power in Louisiana early Wednesday morning.
Overall, there were no reports of serious injuries associated with Tuesday's storm damage, while Pasadena authorities reported one person injured.
CNN's Andy Rose, Robert Shackelford, Jamiel Lynch, Amanda Jackson, Taylor Ward, Joe Sutton and Jillian Sykes contributed to this report.
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