[MULTIPLE VIDEOS & PHOTO LINK BELOW] The death toll from severe storms that punished five Southern states jumped to a staggering 213 Thursday after Alabama canvassed its hard-hit counties for a new tally of lives lost.

Alabama’s state emergency management agency said it had confirmed 131 deaths, up from at least 61 earlier.

“We hope not, but I do expect to find more [bodies],” Gov. Robert Bentley told NBC’s TODAY.

Additionally, the lawmaker confirmed that up to 1 million people remain without power during a conference call with federal emergency officials.

Mississippi officials reported 32 dead in that state and Tennessee raised its report to 30, according to NBC News. Another 12 were killed in Georgia and eight in Virginia.

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The fierce storms Wednesday spawned tornadoes and winds that wiped out homes and businesses, forced a nuclear power plant to use backup generators and prompted the evacuation of a National Weather Service office.

The weather system spread destruction from Texas to New York, where dozens of roads were flooded or washed out.

The severe weather was continuing Thursday. The National Weather Service was issuing short-lived tornado warnings — advising people to “take cover now” — as the twisters formed.

By early Thursday, these had been sent out for parts of New York, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.

The NWS Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said it received 137 tornado reports around the region, including 66 in Alabama and 38 in Mississippi.

The NWS also issued flash flood warnings for parts of New York, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Arkansas and Georgia, for Thursday morning.

And it further warned of severe thunderstorms in parts of Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and Georgia.

The states where fatalities were reported were:

•Alabama, where 131 people died and officials said damage was spread over a wide area. “It looks like somebody came through with a huge ax and cut the top off of everything. Just a big blade through that whole area. That area is just total devastation,” Tuscaloosa resident David Ikard was quoted as saying by Alabama Live.

•Mississippi, where 32 were killed, including police officer Wade Sharp who died when a tree fell on his tent as he shielded his young daughter, a ranger with the National Park Service said. The 9-year-old was brought to a motorhome about 100 feet away where campsite volunteer Greg Maier was staying with his wife. Maier went back to check on the father and found him dead. “She wasn’t hurt, just scared and soaking wet,” he said.

•Georgia, where NBC News reported 12 deaths; Gov. Nathan Deal declared a state of emergency in Catoosa, Floyd, Dade and Walker counties.

•Tennessee, where 30 people were killed. The Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office identified one victim as 41-year-old Mai Crumley, of Chattanooga, who died Wednesday when a tree fell on her trailer.

•Virginia, where the toll increased from one to eight with officials saying seven more were killed when a possible tornado hit a truck stop and several mobile homes.
The number of deaths was expected to rise with authorities still searching for missing people, NBC News said.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC / MSNBC)