A minimum of seven tornadoes hit southeast Louisiana and southwest Mississippi on Tuesday afternoon, according to some reports, leaving behind a trail of destruction.

A meteorologist at the National Weather Service in New Orleans said they were tracking more than a dozen reports of tornadoes in the region.

In Louisiana's St. James Parish, one of the hardest hit areas, the storm destroyed nearly 160 mobile homes at the Sugar Hill RV Park in the town of Convent, on the Mississippi River.

An ambulance service in Louisiana said it had transported 28 people from the mobile home park to hospitals.

Severe weather warnings across several states

On the Mississippi Gulf Coast, residents reported damage to homes from tornadoes and golf ball-sized hail as the weather system charged across the southern US.

In Louisiana, about 31,000 customers were without power according to Entergy Louisiana, the main electricity supplier in the area.

Louisiana and Mississippi canceled school and government offices closed early as severe weather warnings piled up from Louisiana to Florida and Georgia.

Mississippi Governor Phil Bryan declared a state of emergency for areas expected to be affected by the storm.

The National Weather Service said that Alabama could see tornadoes with hail and damaging winds of up to 70 miles per hour (113 kilometers per hour) early Wednesday.

av/cmk (AFP, Reuters, AP)