Forecasters have confirmed that 14 tornadoes touched down in Mississippi as severe storms made its way across the South. Three people have died as a result of the weather.

The National Weather Service said in a news release Friday that it had surveyed Thursday afternoon’s twisters.

The strongest tornado had winds as high as 132 mph (212 kph) when it hit a neighborhood in the central Mississippi town of Morton, damaging numerous homes.

The storms are blamed for three deaths — two men who were driving and a third man crushed by a tree he was cutting up after the severe weather struck.

Four of the twisters were in Rankin County, just east of Jackson.

Damage from the storm system was reported in at least 24 of Mississippi’s 82 counties.

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant is declaring the state’s second state of emergency in less than a week due to tornadoes.

Lincoln County Coroner Clay McMorris tells the Daily Leader of Brookhaven that 63-year-old Freddie Mobley died from injuries after a tree trunk rolled onto him Thursday in the southwestern Mississippi community.

Deputy Coroner Ricky Alford says the Brookhaven resident had made a few cuts on the tree and backed away when the trunk shifted before he could move. He was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead about two hours later.

Two other people who were killed while driving as severe weather moved through the South are also being counted as storm related deaths in Mississippi.