Workers help clean up a tornado damaged home Friday in Cammack Village, Ark. In and near Little Rock, Ark., residents used chainsaws, backhoes and elbow grease to clean up from its latest bout of bad weather - a tornado that swept through Thursday night.

Jackson, Miss. ? Strong thunderstorms toppled trees, knocked out power and damaged homes Friday in Mississippi and Alabama, while flooding in Kentucky forced evacuations and left a 2-year-old girl dead.

Across Mississippi, fast-moving storms unleashed possible tornadoes, heavy rain and some hail. Power failures were reported in several communities, including near downtown Vicksburg and in Jackson.

Tate Moudy of Brandon had just walked into the Southern States Utility Trailer Sales office on U.S. Highway 49 in Richland after showing a trailer to a customer when “there was a big bang from a transformer being knocked out and debris started flying through the front door.”

The powerful storm overturned 18-wheeler trailers, ripped away part of the roof of the sales office and twisted beams in the building, Moudy said. Employees and others had to remain inside because power lines had fallen across vehicles parked in the lot.

“It was scary, I can tell you that,” he said.

The American Medical Response ambulance service, which serves a number of counties in the Jackson area, handled at least 20 storm-related injuries, company spokesman Jim Pollard said. He said he had no immediate information on the nature of the injuries.

At least 90,000 customers of Entergy Mississippi lost power Friday, mostly in and around Jackson, said company spokesman Checky Herrington. It will probably be Monday before power is restored to all, Herrington said.

Charles Ware of Canton said he was in his car outside a Home Depot when winds smashed the window of his vehicle and tossed around shopping carts.

“The whole thing was like being in a silent movie,” he told the Clarion-Ledger of Jackson. “Your adrenaline is flowing so much you can see all this stuff but you don’t hear anything.”

Amid scattered damage in north Alabama, no injuries were reported, but forecasters issued a string of severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings through the evening. No touchdowns were confirmed.

School systems throughout the Birmingham area dismissed students ahead of a wave of storms Friday.

Falling trees struck several houses and a nursing home in Cullman, and authorities ordered an evacuation of everyone within a half-mile radius of a downtown area where a gas leak was reported. Workers contained the leak but feared fuel had reached the city’s storm sewers.

Power was out throughout town, and officials urged the city’s 14,000 residents to conserve water because the treatment plant couldn’t operate.