Updated February 26, 2018 17:13:35

At least five people have been killed as severe thunderstorms swept through the central US, spawning tornadoes that flattened homes, gale force winds and widespread flooding.

The system, stretching from Texas to the Canadian Maritime provinces, had prompted several emergency declarations even before the dangerous storms arrived.

Storm crews confirmed two tornadoes touched down in middle Tennessee and Kentucky, with maximum-sustained winds of 193 kilometres per hour.

One of the tornados struck in south-central Kentucky, causing homes to collapse and cars to flip over, and a 79-year-old woman died after her Adairville home was destroyed, the Logan County Sheriff's Office said.

Photo: The storm destroyed houses across the central US, with winds reaching up to 193kph. (AP: The Tennessean/Lacy Atkins)

Sheriff officials said she was inside the home when it collapsed on her, and authorities said her husband was outside putting up plastic to keep rain out of the home when he was blown into the basement area. He sustained minor injuries.

Authorities said they also recovered two bodies from submerged vehicles in separate incidents.

In south-western Michigan, the body of a 48-year-old man was found floating in floodwaters in Kalamazoo on Sunday, officials said.

The fifth death was in north-east Arkansas, where an 83-year-old man was killed after high winds toppled a mobile home. Clay County Sheriff Terry Miller told KAIT-TV that Albert Foster died on Saturday night after the home was blown into a pond.

About 80 kilometres away, the US National Weather Service said the roof was blown off a hotel in Osceola, about 257 kilometres north of Memphis, Tennessee.

In middle Tennessee, Montgomery County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Sandra Brandon said at least four homes were destroyed and dozens of others were damaged, while 75 cars at a tyre plant car park had their windows blown out or were tossed onto one other.

"To look at what I'm looking at and know we didn't lose anybody is just a miracle," Montgomery County Mayor Jim Durrett said.

At Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, a teenage girl was hit by falling debris at a college basketball game after an apparent lightning strike knocked a hole in the arena's roof on Saturday night.

Photo: Gio Rodriguez, 8, sits outside his Tennessee home after a storm which caused chaos across much of the central United States. (AP: The Tennessean/Lacy Atkins)

School director of marketing and digital media Kevin Young said the 15-year-old girl was taken to a hospital as a precaution. The extent of her injuries weren't immediately released.

The governors of Missouri, Indiana and Illinois declared disaster emergencies.

Flood watches and warnings spanned multiple states on Sunday morning, from Missouri to central Pennsylvania, while a wind advisory remained in effect for nearly all of Lower Michigan.

Wind gusts of up to 80kph in places downed powerlines in several states hugging Lake Michigan.

Consumers Energy said on Sunday it was working to restore power to more than 20,000 customers across Michigan.

ABC/AP

Topics: weather, storm-event, united-states

First posted February 26, 2018 16:31:35