Authorities in the midwestern U.S. state of Indiana say they have found a baby girl alive in a field near her home, following Friday's massive tornadoes there.
She was hospitalized in critical condition Saturday, after being found in the field in the town of Salem. Officials say she is the only member of her family to survive the tornado that killed her parents, two-month-old sister and a 3-year-old brother.
Rescue crews are searching for additional survivors from the string of tornadoes, which killed at least 37 people across several midwestern and southern states.
President Barack Obama called the governors of the hardest-hit states of Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio to offer condolences and said the federal emergency management agency is ready to help. The southern states of Georgia and Alabama were also hit by tornadoes.
Tornadoes leveled much of the town of Henryville, Indiana. They tore apart homes, mangled vehicles and even threw a school bus into a building. ''I looked up, and I just see debris everywhere - and next thing I knew, I thought it was a dream, said Henryville storm victim Brandy Burton.
''We [saw] the storm clouds coming in from up here, you could see them swirling , and then debris and everything, and that's when we went in the house, and all I could feel was the wind sucking at us," said storm victim Ernie Hall.
Officials in the town of Marysville, Indiana, say their town is "completely gone."
Heavy damage was also reported near Louisville, Kentucky, where a tornado touched down Friday evening.
Tornadoes hit earlier in the day in the southern state of Alabama, injuring some residents. One of the twisters severely damaged the roof of a maximum security prison, but no inmates escaped.
The severe weather comes just two days after this week's first outbreak of tornadoes cut a path of destruction through the central and southern parts of the U.S., killing 13 people.
The powerful storm system tore through neighborhoods in the states of Illinois, Missouri and Tennessee Wednesday, and spawned tornadoes in Kansas and Kentucky.
Last year, tornadoes killed at least 545 people in the United States according to the National Weather Service, one of the deadliest years on record.