Severe storms hit the Southeast on Thursday, damaging houses and shopping areas in at least four states.

Some northeast Mississippi counties and areas of northwest Alabama were under tornado warnings until midafternoon Thursday.

One person was killed and three were injured by a tornado which hit North Carolina, authorities said.

A strong storm devastated a shopping area in Mississippi and several homes were damaged by strong winds in Alabama and in south-central Tennessee.

Mississippi authorities received reports of fallen trees and debris across the area, and officials were dispatched to check out the damage at a shopping mall in Tupelo, Miss., about 160 miles northeast of Jackson, the Associated Press reported. The tornado shredded the metal and cinderblock foundation of the complex’s Building D.

“I've never seen a tornado in real life,” Angela Jamison, who witnessed the scene, said, according to the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal. “It was almost like we were watching a movie. We heard the wind howling and saw the sky turn black and within seconds we saw the tornado hit that building. Stuff was flying all over the place. This was the worst movie I'd ever seen.”

“There were trees down and stuff blown around on Gloster, the main street near the mall,” Dimple Patel, who works about two miles from the Barnes Crossing Mall, told the AP. “All the lights were out and store people were hanging around outside — even people at the gas station.”

Several buildings and a district office in Tupelo were damaged by the strong storm, the Mississippi Department of Transportation said.

After raking the Furniture Market, the storm system moved to the northeast, knocking down power lines on North Gloster Street, turning traffic signs upside down, lifting cars off the ground and pushing them into the trees.

“There were power lines and trees down around it and a car was lifted off the ground and pushed into a tree,” Paul Harkins, Lee County's director of emergency said, according to the same source.

Due to the geography of the continent, the United States has more tornados than any other country. The warm air flow from the tropical south collides with the cold air from the arctic areas, which determines unexpected changes of weather. Strong tornadoes usually occur in an area of the central United States known as the Tornado Alley.