Tornado threat as 30 MILLION people across the South are warned to brace for ... trends now

Mississippi bore the brunt of a strong line of ferocious storms that roared across South on Friday night with reports suggesting a tornado a mile wide had touched down in the small town of Rolling Fork, leaving people trapped amid a path of destruction. 

Forecasters had been warning residents in parts of the Midwest and South on Friday that dangerously strong winds would be moving through the region coupled with the possibility of damaging EF2 tornadoes with winds of up to 135mph.

Worst fears were realized just after 9pm on Friday night with one storm chaser managing to tweet that help was urgently needed in the area after the colossal storm left people trapped inside collapsed homes and businesses. 

'The damage in Rolling Fork, Mississippi is BAD. People are trapped, we need help here,' Zachary Hall tweeted.

He later tweeted how police had stressed the urgency of the situation and begged him to get the message out: 'Major tornado damage, we need as many ambulances as possible and any help for search and rescue in this town.' 

A reporter on the ground told how several people had been rushed to hospital following the barrage of storms which left homes flattened and businesses crushed.

Other stormchasers in the area captured the violent nature of the storms with lightning and power flashes illuminating the threatening sky as a tornado passed through Anguilla, Mississippi. 

In nearby Silver City, Mississippi, damage was said to be 'everywhere' after the tiny village of 300 people suffered a direct hit.

More than 30 million people lay in the storm's path which had already led to the drowning deaths of two people after a car was swept away with the passengers still inside drowned earlier on Friday in Missouri.

Golf ball-sized hail stones emanating from the supercell storms also saw torrential rains leading to flooding - all part of the severe weather system which has been barreling across the country.

The drowning accident happened just after midnight in a sparsely populated area of southwestern Missouri.

Authorities said six young adults were in the vehicle that was swept away as the car tried to cross a bridge over a flooded creek in the town of Grovespring.

Four of the six made it out of the water. The body of Devon Holt, 20, of Grovespring, was found at 3:30am, and the body of Alexander Roman-Ranelli, 19, of Springfield, was recovered about six hours later, Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Thomas Young said.

The driver told authorities that the rain made it difficult to see that water from a creek had covered the bridge, Young said.