A series of tornadoes that touched down in Alabama and Georgia on Sunday have become the most catastrophic in years. The death toll now stands at 23 but is expected to rise. Lee County, Alabama saw the worst of it with a trail of destruction that runs miles long. The Weather Channel writes:

Sheriff Jay Jones said at a new conference Monday morning that the number of missing people was in double digits. He added, however, that some of those may be people who left the area and haven’t contacted family members.

He said the dead included children but he had no specific count.

“It’s extremely upsetting to me to see these people hurting like this,” Jones said. “This is a tight-knit community of tough, resilient people, and this has knocked them down.”

“It hurts my heart too see this,” he said.

Watch more from CBS above.