ELGIN, Texas —

       One person was killed and more than two dozen were injured when tornadoes tore through parts of Texas and Oklahoma, damaging a school, homes and businesses, before the storm system on Tuesday continued its destructive path into Louisiana and Mississippi.

       High winds uprooted trees in Ridgeland, Miss., as a possible tornado passed the city Tuesday afternoon; there were no immediate reports of injuries or serious damage to buildings. Campus police at Mississippi State University in Starkville shared a photo of a hardwood tree lying across a street.

       Forecasters issued tornado warnings for the state, and alerts spread into Alabama as the line of storms moved eastward. More than 90,000 homes and businesses from Texas to Mississippi were left without power.

       Many Louisiana and Mississippi schools were closing early or canceling after-school activities Tuesday to allow students to get home before the weather deteriorated. Shelters opened for residents who needed a place to stay while the storms traveled through.

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       High water posed a threat to Louisiana motorists early Tuesday on a stretch of Interstate 20 and several state highways, after rains overnight, authorities said. Deputies in Caddo Parish, which includes Shreveport, rescued three drivers from high waters during the night, the sheriff’s office tweeted before dawn.

       The storms were expected to intensify throughout the day as temperatures rise, increasing the threat of tornadoes, hail and strong winds. Forecasters predicted intense tornadoes and damaging winds, some hurricane-force with speeds of 75 mph or greater, in much of Mississippi, southern and eastern Louisiana and western Alabama. Baton Rouge, La., and Jackson, Miss., were among the cities at risk for bad weather.

       Louisiana’s federal and state authorities reminded thousands of hurricane survivors living in government-provided mobile homes and recreational vehicle trailers to have an evacuation plan because the structures might not withstand the weather. More than 8,000 households live in such temporary quarters, officials said.

       In Texas, several tornadoes were reported Monday along the Interstate 35 corridor, particularly in the Austin suburbs of Round Rock and Elgin, as well as in northern and eastern Texas and southern Oklahoma.

       In Elgin, broken trees lined rural roads, and pieces of metal — uprooted by strong winds — hung from the branches. Residents stepped carefully to avoid downed power lines as they worked to clean the remnants of broken ceilings, collapsed walls and damaged cars.

       J.D. Harkins, 59, said he saw two tornadoes pass by his Elgin home.

       “There used to be a barn there,” Harkins said, pointing to an empty plot on his uncle’s property that was covered with scattered debris. He said the building was empty when the first tornado hit Monday, and his family is thankful nobody was hurt.

       “It was crystal-clear, well-defined,” Harkins said. “And then one went up, and another one came down.”

       The tornadoes came on a wild weather day in Texas: Wildfires burned in the west, and a blizzard warning was issued for the Panhandle, where up to 9 inches of snow fell.

       “There’s absolutely nothing out of the ordinary in terms of what we saw yesterday and we see today,” said Victor Gensini, a meteorology professor at Northern Illinois University, who studies severe storms. It’s the time of year when tornadoes and storms are to be expected, he said, and there are usually more during years with a La Nina, a natural cooling of parts of the Pacific that alters weather across the globe. The biggest concern remains tornadoes that strike at night, Gensini said.

       At news conferences in Jacksboro and Crockett, two Texas communities severely damaged by tornadoes, Gov. Greg Abbott announced a disaster declaration for 16 hard-hit counties.

       Abbott said 10 people were injured by storms in the Crockett area; more than a dozen were reportedly hurt elsewhere.

       The Grayson County Emergency Management Office said a 73-year-old woman was killed in the community of Sherwood Shores, about 75 miles north of Dallas, but provided no details.

       Homes and businesses in at least a dozen Texas counties were damaged, according to Storm Prediction Center reports.

       Officials reported damage throughout Jacksboro, about 60 miles northwest of Fort Worth. Photographs posted on social media showed that a storm ripped the wall and roof from parts of Jacksboro High School.

       “It brought tears to my eyes,” Principal Starla Sanders told WFAA-TV in Dallas.

       Bleed reported from Little Rock, Ark. Associated Press journalists Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Ala.; Julie Walker in New York; Ken Miller in Oklahoma City; Terry Wallace in Dallas; and Janet McConnaughy in New Orleans contributed to this report.