The death toll has risen to 20 after tornadoes ripped through the US South in the past three days. Widespread damage was reported in south and North Carolinas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas.

Power outages, overturning of vehicles and building collapses were reported across North and South Carolina on Saturday.

Six people died in Arkansas when a tornado uprooted trees and hurled them on residential houses. Among those killed were a mother and her two children. Mobile houses were blown off their bases by tornadoes in North Carolina.

The toll went up on Saturday when five people were killed in North Carolina, as the deadliest tornadoes event of the season unfurled.

In South Carolina, at least six people miraculously escaped even after a tornado destroyed a church they were in.

In Virginia, where calamities were less severe, at least eight houses collapsed in extreme bad weather.

However, the most recent spate of tornadoes to torment the southern US will peter out by Saturday, Reuters reported. The agency quoted a meteorologist with the Storm Prediction Center, as saying that Saturday would likely be the final day for the deadly storm system in the region.

An average of 70 people are killed by tornadoes in the U.S., according to Reuters. The tornado season runs from March to early July in the U.S.

Storm Storm Storm U.S.