© Jim R. Bounds/APEmergency personnel work around a Lowes Home Improvement store after it was hit by a tornado in Sanford, N.C., Saturday.
The massive storm system ripping through the South had killed 39 people in six states as of Sunday morning, and the death toll was expected to rise.
The wave of tornadoes, flash floods and chunks of hail began in Oklahoma on Thursday, killing people there before it claimed lives in Alabama, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi and North Carolina.
North Carolina's governor declared a state of emergency after 62 tornadoes touched down, the most in two decades.
Ten people were already confirmed dead in Bertie County, a hamlet of 21,000 people about 130 miles east of Raleigh, North Carolina, county manager Zee Lamb said.
The tornado crashed through at about 7 p.m. on Saturday, destroying homes and sending cars flying through the air as they drove along the county's small rural roads.