A car is perched on top of another following severe weather Wednesday Feb, 29th 2012 in Hodgenville, Ky. Waves of strong storms ripped roofs off homes, apartment buildings and a bank and destroyed several buildings in north-central Kentucky. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Severe storms raking a wide swath of the South with damaging winds killed at least three people Wednesday in Tennessee, battered homes and businesses in Kentucky and knocked out power to thousands of people across the region.

Authorities also said at least a half dozen people were injured by the rapidly moving storms that dumped pingpong ball-sized hail in some areas and were accompanied by downpours, thunder and lightning.

The weather was part of a vast system that spawned tornadoes earlier in the day in Missouri, Illinois and Kansas, killing nine. The system threatened to bring more damaging winds and rain to the Southeast amid warnings the region “could definitely get a tornado here and there,” said Ryan Jewell, a meteorologist with the Storm Prediction Center in Oklahoma from the storms.

In Tennessee, seven homes were destroyed and about 50 damaged in Cumberland County, Jill Lewis of the county Emergency Management Agency said. Emergency crews worked after nightfall to rescue injured people trapped inside homes. A medical helicopter was seen helping some of the injured.

Doug Scarlett of the Cumberland County American Red Cross said a shelter was being set up in anticipation of some victims being left homeless.

“We have no idea what the damage is because this happened just before dark,” he said.

Already, it appeared to be the most deadly weather outbreak in Tennessee since 37 people died in tornadoes last April 27-28. Tennessee is one of the U.S. states considered by experts most vulnerable to tornadoes.

National Weather Service spokeswoman Brittney Whitehead of Nashville said survey teams would head out after dawn in Tennessee on Thursday to evaluate damage and determine if tornadoes in fact had touched down.

“We’ll know more tomorrow,” she told The Associated Press.

Tornado watches had been in effect for much of the day Wednesday in large areas of Tennessee, where high winds flattened trees and tore roofs off buildings. Some power lines were downed. The cells moved at up to 75 mph across Tennessee, accompanied by thunder and lightning and scattered hail.

“The storms just made a terrible racket,” said Sandra Goldston, who sought shelter with her dog Gigi under a bead in her home outside Crossville, Tenn.

Elsewhere, tornadoes struck in four counties in Kentucky, including LaRue County, about 55 miles southwest of Louisville. Twenty houses were destroyed or severely damaged there.

“The path that this storm took could have been very devastating,” said Tommy Turner, the judge-executive in LaRue County. “Approximately a tenth of a mile north of where this storm hit was a large day care. About a tenth of a mile south, there are three schools.”

Turner said he has asked the Kentucky National Guard to help provide security in the aftermath.

In Kentucky, mobile homes and houses were flattened in Henderson, Elizabethtown and Hodgenville, officials said. A tornado with winds of 125 miles per hour hit Elizabethtown.

“It picked the whole building up,” said Jim Owen, whose father owns Harry Owen Trucking, which sustained heavy damage. “It would take a group of 20 men five days with equipment to tear that down.”

Three trailers parked in a lot outside were pushed into each other, toppled like dominoes. State police went door-to-door, checking on residents in areas where roofs had been lifted off.

In Hodgenville, home to the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Park, Paul Mayfield picked through what remained of his garage. Vinyl siding was wrapped around his SUV. The storm came while he was at work and his wife dove into a closet when insulation began pouring out of the living room ceiling, he said.

Down the street, resident Adonna Gardner was hauling what remained from her half-destroyed house into waiting pickup trucks as she prepared to move in with her parents temporarily.

In Henderson in western Kentucky, a tornado with winds of 90 mph destroyed five houses near the Ohio River and damaged two others. Two residents were taken to local hospitals with injuries, said Larry Koerber, the local emergency management director.

The National Weather Service also confirmed a tornado in Grayson County.

Farther west in Kentucky, two people were rescued after getting trapped in a mobile home that was toppled by fierce winds that hit McCracken County before dawn, said Paul Carter, the local emergency management director. They were taken to a hospital with serious injuries, he said.

Four others suffered minor injuries when their mobile home was destroyed, Carter said.

“It’s a miracle that the family got out,” he said.

The storm blew off a church steeple and damaged or destroyed about eight homes in a rural section of the county.

The Midwest and South will get a reprieve Thursday, the meteorologist Jewell said, ahead of a strong storm system expected Friday. It is forecast to take a similar path as Wednesday’s storms but has the potential for even more damage. In north Alabama, students were sent home early because of the threat of severe weather.

“Friday, you’re right in the bull’s eye,” he said.

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