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Severe weather was moving through Mississippi and Alabama early Thursday after apparent tornadoes tore through parts of Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana, where six deaths included a trailer factory worker whose body was found a quarter mile from his workplace.

More than 100,000 customers from Texas to Mississippi were without power Thursday as the severe weather moved through, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks utility reports.

Tornado warnings sent residents taking cover in southern Mississippi and Alabama. Trees and power lines were toppled in parts of west Alabama. No injuries or major damage were reported immediately.

The factory worker was killed when a suspected twister hit just as the workforce was leaving for the day from J&I Manufacturing in southern Oklahoma, Marshall County Emergency Management Director Robert Chaney said. That apparent tornado caused widespread damage in Madill, near the Red River, said Donny Raley, the city’s emergency manager.

The worker’s body was found about a fourth of a mile the factory, Chaney said.

A Louisiana man found dead after a witness saw him try to retrieve a trash can from water near a drainage ditch. He lost his footing and was swept away by floodwaters, DeSoto Parish Sheriff Jayson Richardson told The Shreveport Times.

“There was some pretty extreme flooding here in Mansfield. Water like I’ve not seen in many, many years, if ever,” the sheriff told the newspaper. “Basically the water rose really fast and we had to rescue some people out of homes. I think we had about 20 or so homes that people were flooded in.”

A woman was killed on a bridge in Woodworth, La., 15 miles south of Alexandria, due to the severe weather, the Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office told KALB-TV. The sheriff’s office did not provide detail on how she died.

At least three people were killed when apparent tornado touched down in southeast Texas about 6 p.m. Wednesday near Onalaska, about 75 miles north of Houston, the Polk County Emergency Management System said in a statement. The storm rumbled east through Seven Oaks and caused severe damage to homes and other structures, said Carrie Miller, a spokesperson for Polk County Judge Sydney Murphy.

There was no immediate information on how these victims were killed.

The Alexandria campus of Louisiana State University also saw some damage from the storm. The university 

, “All resident students safe. There is damage to DeWitt Livestock building and a camper flipped over." The campus was also left without power.

A National Weather Service team will be dispatched to survey damage and to confirm whether the storms were tornadoes.

Weather and Climate News

The Associated Press

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Severe weather was moving through Mississippi and Alabama early Thursday after apparent tornadoes tore through parts of Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana, where six deaths included a trailer factory worker whose body was found a quarter mile from his workplace.


At least 6 dead as storms hit Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana

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