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Tornadoes slice through communities along the Missouri-Illinois border

The National Weather Service confirmed Monday that damage in Fredericktown, Missouri, was due to a tornado with at least an EF3 rating.
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Residents just outside of St. Louis picked up the pieces Monday from damage left by tornadoes that roared through southeastern Missouri and southwest Illinois.

The National Weather Service asked residents of the area to share pictures of storm damage so the agency could document where the twisters struck on Sunday night.

Ameren Missouri, one of the region's major power providers, reported "significant damage" to a substation in southeast Missouri near Fredericktown.

The weather service confirmed Monday that a tornado with at least an EF3 rating caused damage in the area. A tornado with that rating is considered severe and wind speeds range from 136-165 mph.

A storage building in Fredericktown was leveled, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported, and other buildings lost roofs and had their windows cracked.

While trees snapped like twigs and downed power lines dotted Chester, Illinois, on Monday, Mayor Thomas Page said he's grateful of no immediate reports of serious injury of deaths.

"It was spooky, it was scary," Page told NBC News, describing the rain and high winds that battered his his town, best known as "Home of Popeye the Sailor Man."

"I think it (damage) could have been a whole lot worse."

The weather service found at least EF1 damage north of Chester, but warned the rating may increase as the survey is ongoing. A tornado with that rating is considered moderate and wind speeds range from 86–110 mph.

At least 30 homes in St. Mary, Missouri, about 55 miles southeast of St. Louis, were damaged and the St. Mary Antique Mall was destroyed by the powerful storms, according to Ste. Genevieve County Emergency Management Director Felix Meyer.

At one point, all of St. Mary, which has several hundred residents, was without power. Only a handful of customers were still without power by midday Monday.

The severe weather in the Midwest came as a powerful storm barreled toward Southern California after flooding highways, toppling trees and causing mud flows in areas burned bare by recent fires across the northern part of the state. Drenching showers and strong winds accompanied the storm.

The system that hit the Midwest continued east into the Ohio Valley on Monday, said weather service meteorologist Alex Elmore, who is based in St. Charles.

“It has weakened as it moves east,” Elmore said. “There is a chance of severe weather later Monday in the Carolinas and portions of Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee.”

Forecasters are expecting more stormy weather later in the week. On Tuesday afternoon, parts of Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas could see severe storms, according to the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma. Forecasters said those storms could bring large hail, strong winds and isolated tornadoes.