Missouri officials assessing damage from Friday's tornadoes

DEFIANCE, Mo. — Missouri officials are continuing to assess the damage caused by tornadoes that killed at least two people in the state this weekend.

Gov. Mike Parson visited St. Charles and Pemiscot counties Sunday to see the aftermath of the storms that moved through Friday night. The same storm system also generated tornadoes that killed dozens of people in four other states with the worst damage in Kentucky.

"This morning, we witnessed neighbors helping neighbors and consider this the spirit of true Missourians," Parson said in a Facebook post Sunday.

State officials are working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to get aid out to affected communities.

In the Bootheel, a young child was killed at home but officials have released few details about that. At least nine other people were treated in hospitals in Pemiscot County.

Friends and family search amidst remnants for valuables at the Defiance, Missouri, home of Ollie and Vernon Borgmann on Saturday on Route F that was destroyed in severe weather.Christian Gooden ~ St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP

The National Weather Service said the tornado that swept across St. Charles County and killed an 84-year-old woman in Defiance was rated an EF3 tornado with winds between 136 miles per hour and 165 miles per hour.

Mark Borgmann told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch the tornado killed his mother and injured his father in St. Charles County. His parents, Ollie and Vernon Borgmann, both 84, were at home when the tornado hit. The tornado swept his parents' single-story home and a neighbor's house off their foundations, scattering debris at least a half-mile. Parson's office said two others in St. Charles County were hospitalized.

Overnight Friday, the National Weather Service issued 31 tornado warnings for Missouri, the governor's office said.

National Weather Service workers themselves had to take shelter as a tornado passed near their office in Weldon Spring, Missouri, about 30 miles west of St. Louis.