April 7 (Reuters) - Authorities in Mississippi searched early Monday for a 9-year-old girl thought to have been swept away in flash-flood waters triggered by severe storms that were expected to spread north into the eastern United States.
The child was missing in Yazoo County, where homes and businesses also were flooded, the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency said.
Seven people suffered minor injuries in Covington County in the state after an apparent tornado damaged homes there overnight, the emergency agency said.
The National Weather Service said flash flooding was reported across parts of Mississippi and Alabama as heavy rain moved into northern Georgia.
The thunderstorms on Monday could bring hail and damaging winds, in addition to floods across the central Gulf Coast and into the South, weather officials said.
(Reporting by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
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