Mother, 8-year-old son identified as victims of deadly tornado in Montgomery County, Alabama

05:11

National Weather Service survey teams working to assess possible tornado reports

Brandon Black, NWS meteorologist in Mobile, Alabama, talks about why it is important for them to conduct surveys following events like a severe weather outbreak. 

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Ala. – A deadly severe weather outbreak produced at least 40 reports of tornadoes that stretched across four states in the South on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, and new information is being learned about those who were killed in the storms.

The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office confirmed to FOX Weather that the two people killed in the Flatwood community north of Montgomery, Alabama, during an EF-2 tornado early Wednesday morning were identified as a 39-year-old woman and her 8-year-old son.

The woman's husband and boy's father was also injured, the sheriff's office said.

SEVERE STORMS TURN DEADLY IN SOUTH AFTER AT LEAST 40 TORNADOES REPORTED ACROSS 4 STATES

Speaking to FOX Weather on Wednesday morning, Christina Thornton, the director of the Montgomery City-County Emergency Management Agency, said the two died when trees fell on top of their mobile home.

Thornton said there were also multiple reports of people who were injured across the county.

'Wiped off the map'

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Drone footage reveals widespread damage from deadly tornado in Alabama

Drone footage reveals extensive damage from a tornado in Wetumpka, Alabama.

Thornton said search and rescue operations began as soon as the severe weather moved through the region, but those efforts were slowed by the numerous trees and debris that littered and covered roadways in the county.

"It's absolutely looking like a small community has been wiped off the map," Thornton said on Wednesday morning. "It's really devastating to think about when you look across the field, and you know that there were homes there the day before on your way to work, and when you're leaving work (Wednesday morning), they're not going to be there."

Nighttime tornadoes are known to affect the region, including during autumn, which is known as the second severe weather season. Tornadoes at any time of day can cause massive amounts of damage, but tornadoes after dark are far more likely to turn deadly as they are more difficult to spot, and those in harm's way may be sleeping and unaware of the approaching danger. 

NIGHTTIME TORNADOES FAR MORE LIKELY TO TURN DEADLY THAN DAYTIME ONES

Additional injuries reported across South

More injuries have been reported across the South after severe thunderstorms and tornadoes moved through starting Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning.

Four people were seriously injured and several animals were killed in Caldwell Parish, Louisiana, during an EF-3 tornado Tuesday evening, according to reports from photojournalist Michael Beard with Live Storms Media and a damage survey conducted by the National Weather Service office in Shreveport, Louisiana.

SEE THE DAMAGE LEFT BEHIND BY STORMS IN THE SOUTH

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'It's pretty devastating': Tornado rips apart homes in Louisiana community

Chief Deputy Jack McKeithen with the Caldwell Parish Sheriff's Office, describes the debris cleanup in the community of Holum, Louisiana.

"The livestock behind his home was destroyed," Jack McKeithen, chief deputy at the Caldwell Parish Sheriff's office, said of one of the homes hit hard by the storms. "He's lost everything. He's just devastated and doesn't know what's going to happen and what he's going to do. He's just thankful he wasn't hurt seriously."

The deadly severe weather outbreak has led to at least 40 reports of tornadoes from Louisiana and Mississippi to Alabama and Georgia. The NWS will continue to conduct damage surveys in the coming days to determine the exact number of tornadoes that touched down during the severe weather event.

All reports of severe weather, including damaging winds, large hail and tornadoes, on Nov. 29-30 are plotted on the map.

(FOX Weather)

The NWS confirmed that the two strongest tornadoes so far were the EF-3 twister with 140-mph winds that hit Caldwell Parish, Louisiana, and another EF-3 tornado that tracked from Greene County, Mississippi, into Washington County, Alabama. Winds in that twister were also estimated to be 140 mph when it tore through heavily forested areas before going on to cause significant damage to a high school in Fruitdale, Alabama, between 2:30 a.m. and 3 a.m. CST Wednesday morning.