Deadly EF3 Tornado Hits Columbus, Mississippi (PHOTOS)

The first tornado death of 2019 was confirmed Saturday evening after a building collapsed during an EF3 tornado in Columbus, Mississippi, as severe storms raged across the Deep South. At least 11 others were injured during the severe weather, according to the National Weather Service.

Strong winds from the tornado destroyed buildings and toppled trees over power lines, leaving thousands without power. Across the town of about 24,000, damage was widespread.

"The wind all of a sudden just got so strong, and it was raining so much you could hardly see out the door, and I could hear a roaring. Evidently it came close," Lee Lawrence, a car business owner in Columbus, told the Associated Press.

After the tornado finished its damaging path, numerous buildings and homes were destroyed, and thousands were without power. The EF3 tornado confirmed in Columbus was the strongest twister in the United States in 2019 so far, and the first deadly tornado.

"We saw homes without roofs and outer walls, a car flipped over into a ditch and lots of trees and power lines down," Dax Clark, a meteorology student at Mississippi State University, told weather.com.