There were over 40 reports of tornadoes as the storm spiraled in a destructive path from Texas and Arkansas across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and into the Carolinas, damaging hundreds of homes and leaving 1.3million without power. 

In Mississippi officials said the tornadoes' threat to the community trumped that of COVID-19, forcing locals to flee their homes for sturdy shelters. 

'That's always an issue - we emphasized to everyone that if they went into a shelter they had to maintain hygiene, wash their hands and use sanitizer and use masks but at the end of the day, life safety had to persist over everything else and the greater risk of the tornado overcame COVID,' Mississippi Emergency Management Agency Greg Michel said to Good Morning America on Monday.

Speaking on the risk of coronavirus in shelters he said, 'it's still a concern but we've got folks who live in rural areas - shelters were the only option they had.'